In more good news for New Zealand women’s basketball the Canterbury pair of Aimee Book and Esra McGoldrick will be heading to the States later this year on NCAA Division 1 basketball scholarships. 2016 Junior Tall Fern McGoldrick has committed to North Carolina State and will link up with the Wolfpack Women later in the year.
McGoldrick demonstrated her Division 1 potential with a strong performance for the New Zealand Premier team against the University of California Berkeley at North Shore Events Centre in August last year. The former Rangi Ruru School forward scored 9 points and added 6 rebounds as the NZ Premier team went down 77-69.
McGoldrick joins a high profile programme with the Wolfpack currently ranked 23rd in the Associated Press Poll issued on Monday on the back of a seven game winning streak in the strong Atlantic Coast Conference.
Book, daughter of former Tall Black Ed Book, is originally from Nelson but attended Middleton Grange School and played for Canterbury in 2017.
Book also played for New Zealand at the FIBA Under 17 Oceania Championship in Guam in 2017.
The shooting guard is heading to California State University Fullerton in June. CSU play in the Big West Conference the same conference as Cal State Northridge where former Canterbury standout Tessa Boagni is in her senior year.
Known as the Titans CSU are struggling a little this year, currently 7-14 overall but just 2-6 in conference play.
The pair join the likes of Amy West (Liberty University) and Grace Vaofusi (University of Northern Colorado) committed to Division 1 basketball in 2018.
Close to fifty Kiwi women are currently playing college basketball in the States with 16 attending Division 1 universities. That number is likely to swell in 2018 and beyond.
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