With the Tauihi Aotearoa Grand Final upcoming on Sunday it’s perhaps timely to remind ourselves that a number of Kiwis in both camps enjoyed strong college careers before joining the professional ranks – below is a brief rundown on those careers:
Tokomanawa Queens:
Captain Stella Beck enjoyed a standout career at St Mary’s College, California where in 2018 she was named to the All-West Coast Conference First Team for the second time in her career after leading the Gaels in scoring, steals and free-throw shooting in her final collegiate season.
Appearing in her third consecutive final Grace Hunter played 2 years at Junior College and then the 2021-22 season at Florida International University followed by two season at CSU Bakersfield (both NCAA Division I).
Jacinta Beckley enjoyed a 4-year career at University of Seattle playing 94 games for the Redhawks. In her senior year was named to the All-Western Athletic Conference Second Team after averaging 12.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Tiarna Clarke spent one-year playing NCAA Division I at University of Northern Colorado (2017-2018). Played all 32 games for UNC, alongside Krystal Leger-Walker, helping them win the Big Sky Conference.
Lauryn Hippolite played NCAA Division II basketball at Hawaii Pacific University in 2018-19.
Tauranga Whai:
McKenna Dale played two years in the Ivy League at Brown University before transferring to Virginia University for a further two years making 102 appearances in total.
Jade Kirisome played 109 games during her 4 years of NCAA Division I basketball. She spent her freshman year at North Carolina State University followed by three years at St Mary’s, California.
Eva Langton played two years at Western Nebraska Junior College before moving on to Texas A&M International (NCAA Division II) for three years.
Kaylee Smiler enjoyed a 5 year playing career at Brigham Young University (BYU) where she made 137 appearances for the Cougars – only Tegan Graham (153), Kendall Heremaia (145) and Krystal Leger Walker (142), amongst Kiwi women, have played more NCAA Division I games.
And now to the present:
Averaging 17 points per game Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones put up 21 as UC San Diego (9-2) beat Idaho 80-56. AT-J is now just 13 points shy of passing the 655 career points Tom Vodanovich scored at James Maddison Uni to move to 15th on the all-time list of NZ scorers in Men’s NCAA Division I hoops.
Ben Gold scored 9 points as Marquette (9-2) suffered just its second loss of the season going down 71-63 against Dayton.
On the road against Power Four opponents South Carolina Upstate were beaten 73-53 by South Carolina. Making a fourth consecutive start Nick Book bettered his season average with 8 points on 4 from 7 shooting for Upstate.
Will Shortt, the leading shot blocker at Niagara, added another pair to his highlights – along with 6 rebounds and 2 points as the Purple Eagles edged a close one against St Francis 69-66.
Leah Mafua is shooting the three-ball at over 40% this season but could only make 1 from 4 for Central Arkansas (6-2) in its 62-52 defeat of Northwestern State. Mafua finished the contest with 7 points, a couple of assists and a steal.
Olivia Williams pulled down a team high 7 rebounds to accompany 8 points as UC Irvine (7-3) beat Oregon State 60-48.
Izzy Pugh, with 8 points, was the second highest scorer for Wisconsin Milwaukee as it suffered a 69-51 loss to Marquette.
Emilee Tahata had 6 points, 5 rebounds and a game high 3 blocks as Rider got the better of Stonehill 63-55. The former Junior Tall Fern leads the team in blocks averaging almost two per game.
LACEY LOWDOWN 