Francesca Belibi (born July 20, 2001) is an American former basketball player. She played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal of the Pac-12 Conference where she won the NCAA championship in 2021. Prior to college, she drew national attention in high school for her dunking ability.[1][2][3][4] In 2020, she became the eighth woman to dunk in a women's college basketball game.[5]
Belibi started playing competitive basketball for the first time during her freshman year at Regis Jesuit High School.[7] In 2017, she became the first girl to dunk in a game in Colorado high school history.[8] In February 2019, she pulled off the first ever alley-oop dunk by a female in a high school game in Colorado.[9][10] As a senior she averaged 21.8 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.7 blocks and 2.3 assists per game. She was named a McDonald's All-American in 2019 and went on to become the second woman to win the dunk contest at the McDonald's All American Game, after Candace Parker who won in 2004.[11][12]
College career
During her freshman season she averaged 6.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 32 games, making six starts.[13] In December 2020, she became the eighth woman to dunk in a college basketball game when she dunked with under a minute left in the first half of Stanford's victory against California.[14][15] Eight days later, she had another dunk in a victory against UCLA.[16]
On March 19, 2022, Belibi had the third dunk in NCAA women's tournament history when she dunked midway through the second quarter of Stanford's 78-37 first round victory against Montana State.[18]
Belibi made the decision to forgo her final year of college eligibility resulting from the extra year of COVID-19 eligibility. Instead, Belibi made the decision to retire from basketball and to pursue a Masters in Education from Harvard University in 2023–24.[19]
Belibi is listed 6'1" in shoes but 5'11" without them. She has a 6-foot-5 wingspan and a 31-inch vertical leap. Belibi has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Fabiola, the second born child will be attending Harvard university for track, Hana, the third oldest is a consensus 4 star recruit in the 2024 class, and her youngest sibling, Franck is a 4 star recruit, and one of the top recruits in 2026.[4]
