URI isn’t the only place where people know women’s basketball captain Tayra Melendez has got game.

Last summer, the 20-year-old was the youngest member of the national basketball team of Puerto Rico, representing the country she left as a child to move to Massachusetts. Held in Monterrey, Mexico, the 2014 Centrobasket Championship for Women featured nine teams from Central America and the Caribbean. Tayra, a junior psychology major who appeared in all five of her team’s games, helped Puerto Rico earn a second place finish and qualify for the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

The Rams’ leading scorer the past two seasons, Tayra was the lone amateur on her side of the court in Mexico. Her 11 professional teammates taught her lessons that will stay with her forever, she said. “As a young player, at times I get impatient. But with these ladies, I learned that staying calm not only keeps you in control, but also lets you read the game better.”

Mostly, though, Tayra remembers feeling honored. “It was an honor and a privilege to play with a jersey that not only has the name of my home country, but also the name of my family,” she marveled. “It was an amazing feeling.”