NCAA women’s hoops has international flair

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - As if superstars Brittney Griner of Baylor and Connecticut’s Maya Moore weren't enough to watch women’s college hoops, international basketball fans have plenty of reasons to follow the women’s game.

And they will be following some teams a bit less known such as Oral Roberts, Robert Morris, Florida International, Binghampton and Siena.

Here is a look at some of the non-Americans playing NCAA hoops.

Oral Roberts has a huge contingent of international players, topped by England duo Georgia Jones and Dominique Allen as well as Bernadett Balla of Hungary. The team also includes Latvian freshman Ieva Eida and English junior Cristal Turner.

Another England native, Mary Durojaye, is the leader at Robert Morris with nearly a double-double in points and rebounds, while her frontcourt mate is Artemis Spanou of Greece who also averages double-digits in two categories. In addition, London’s Josette Campbell is averaging 10.2 points and 8.0 rebounds for the school, which also has France’s Romane Dessacs, Anna Gailite of Latvia and Anna Kavasila of Greece.

Another university with a very international look is Florida International. The starting line-up features the Hungarian trio of Fanni Hutlassa, Finda Mansare and Zsofia Labady as well as Carmen Miloglav of Croatia. The team also includes Sasha Melnikova of Russia and England’s Timeyin Oritsesan.

Meanwhile, Binghampton also has gone out and recruited international student-athletes. The leading scorer is Orla O’Reilly of Ireland, whose is joined on the team by her twin sister Sinead. Estonian forward Viive Rebane is an all-around star for the side, which also includes Denmark’s Stephanie Jensen and the Canadian duo of Lauren Wheeler and Simone Thomas.

Maja Gerlyng of Denmark and Clara Sole Anglada of Spain are two of the top stars at Siena while Dane Ida Krogh and Canada’s Kim Lysius Cote play minor roles.

The aforementioned are just four of the colleges with multiple internationals.

The University of Texas El Paso features French starting guard Melisa Mendes and Latvian low post presence Kristine Vitola while St Joseph’s has Netherlands starter Samira van Grinsven and Mireira Vila from Spain.

Duquesne has Canadian Wumi Agunbiade, Hungary’s Orsi Szecsi and Aiche Ndao of Senegal, while Kent State’s team stars France’s Tamzin Barroilhet and Itziar Llobet Coderch of Spain and Toledo features Israeli Naama Shafir and Inma Zanoguera of Spain.

Even though many of these schools are not the biggest names, some well-known schools do have international players with France’s Allison Vernerey coming off the bench at Duke, Stefanie Yderstrom of Sweden starting for Miami of Florida and Spain’s Leonor Rodriguez playing at Florida State.

In general, many Europeans - from throughout the continent - are using the chance to earn a college education and play basketball.

More and more Serbs are going to the States including Jelena Cerina (Oklahoma), Aleksandra Dobranic (Ohio State), Smiljana Cuk (Savannah State) and Mina Jovanovic (Longwood).

Sweden has clearly recognized that college is a way to push their women’s game with Frida Fogdemark and Danielle Hamilton-Carter at Georgia Tech while Kalis Loyd is an all-around star at Lamar and Rebecca Henricson starts for Western Illinois University.

England are taking a similar course with Azania Stewart at Florida, Ella Clark at Long Beach State and the starting duo of Christina Gaskin and Charlotte Stoddart at Fordham.

Germans Sonja Greinacher (Gonzaga), Sarah-Marie Frankenberger (New Hampshire), Fredi Moderegger (UNLV) and Ireti Amojo (Washington State) have all been solid contributors as are Lithuanians Ruta Zurauskyte (Santa Clara) and Kamile Nacickaite (Drexel).

Other Europeans doing strong things in the United States are Israel’s Idit Oryon (UC Davis), Norwegian Sigrid Skorpen at Long Beach State, Marquette’s Cristina Bigica from Romania, the Scottish starting duo of Becca Allison and Mairi Buchan at Old Dominion, Croatian Sara Plavljanin at San Jose State, Latvian Liene Priede at Missouri, Colorado State’s Kim Mestdagh of Belgium, Greece’s Jessica Ogunnorin with UC Riverside and Slovakians Sabina Oroszova (Eastern Illinois) and Nicole Maticka (NJIT Highlanders).

There are loads and loads of Canadians doing great things in college hoops south of their border.

Lauren Buschmann and Kristine Lalonde are starters at Vermont; Jamie Ruttle and Kayla Alexander are the leading scorers and rebounders at Canisius and Syracuse, respectively, and Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski are dominating the competition for Utah. Deanna Kerkhof leads Northeastern in scoring and Katherine Plouffe is a star with Marquette.

Australians have long been playing in the States and there are more than a handful of truly star performers this season. Among them are Gonzaga’s Kelly Bowen, Rosie Moult with Fresno State, Stacey Barr at Idaho, Ashleigh Vella of Idaho State, Jessica Kaufman with St Francis, N.Y. and the Troy Australian starting trio of Sarah McAppion, Ieva Nagy and Sophie Kleeman.

One Australian name many fans will recognize is St Mary’s Kate Gaze, the niece of Australian legend Andrew Gaze.

New Zealand is also represented in the women’s college game with Jelena Vucinic at Louisiana Tech, Rebecca Dew at Hawaii, Chevannah Paalvast at Monmouth, Longwood’s Mieke Elkington and 6-foot-9 center Megan Craig at Albany.

Even the Fiji Islands has a player with Letava Whippy at Long Island.

South Americans meanwhile are not really going the college route with Brazilian center Thais Pinto at Oregon State being one of the few of them.

There are however a number of African natives who have taken roles at U.S. colleges including Cameroon’s Ramses Lonlack at Memphis; Banna Diop of Senegal at Utah State; Gabon’s Mimi Mungedi of Nevada; Seton Hall’s Alexandra Maseko of Zimbabwe; and Kenyan Brenda Adhiambo of the independent team Seattle Redhawks.

David Hein

FIBA

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