Fourteen New Zealand freshmen (9 women and 4 men) have begun their NCAA Division I collegiate careers and the majority have seen court time this week.
Below we list their performances and as you can see it has been Nic Book (South Carolina Upstate), Isaiah Chappell (UC Davis) Ritorya Tamilo (Hawaii) and Izzy Pugh (Wisconsin, Milwauke) that have made the greatest impression in the opening days of the season.
Women
Izzy Pugh (Wisconsin, Milwauke) 14 points (6 from 8FG), 4 rebs and 1 block in a 74-49 win over Carroll.
After posting 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 84-81 overtime loss at St Thomas the former Westlake Girls forward came up big in game two of the season.
Ritorya Tamilo (Hawaii) 10pts (3/5FG, 4/4FT), 2rebs, 2stls, 1blk in 76-65 defeat at Portland.
Shawnessy Nordstrom (California Baptist) 5pts, 3rebs and 3 assists in 93-63 loss to Oregon.
Zoe Richardson (Siena) 3rebs and 1 assist as Siena College went under to Army West Point 66-56.
Men
Nic Book (South Carolina Upstate) shooting a perfect 7 from 7 from the field scored 14 points to accompany 9 rebounds in a 103-70 win against Piedmont. That after 10 points (4/8FG) and 8 rebounds in the 97-66 loss to North Carolina State a couple of days earlier.
Isaiah Chappell (UC Davis) 10pts, 7rebs, 1blk v Washington, lost 79-73 on debut. The 6’9” forward is the son of former Breakers import Mike Chappell.
Will Shortt (Niagara) 5 points and 6 rebounds in 100-65 win v Houghton on debut.
Julius Halaifonua (Georgetown) 5pts and 2 rebounds, won 85-77 v Lehigh.
Kaia Berridge (Evansville) 3pts and 1 steal in 80-63 loss at North Texas.
LACEY LOWDOWN 