There was 1:48 left in the fourth quarter, Washington State trailing South Florida by two points, when Charlisse Leger-Walker did this...

Swish. She’d struggled with her jump shot all game up until that point, in fact she’d been on a slump going back to the last few games of the regional tournament, but here was the WSU freshman outta the Waikato drilling a massive bucket at a massive time to give her team the lead. Clutch shooting has been a CLW trend all season, delivering for her team when it matters most. She’s already a player who refuses to shy away from those spotlight moments hence why this particular shot was such a perfect little intimation of why she’s arguably the best female basketball prospect that Aotearoa has ever produced.

But then that was followed by a few examples of how inexperienced she still is. After South Florida took the lead back with an Elena Tsineke layup, CLW missed one of her own at the rim. Her sister and teammate Krystal Leger-Walker then came up with one of the plays of the game to steal the ball off Tsineke with 44 seconds left, down 54-53, but then Charlisse travelled on the resulting possession. Krystal took the quick foul to save time but Elisa Pinzan made both free throws before CLW missed another layup. Krystal took another foul, her game ending with 10 seconds remaining as she fouled out, and Sydni Harvey split the free throws. Charlisse missed a triple down four points with seven seconds on the clock and Sydni Harvey rebounded to ice the game. Washington State eliminated in the first round, 57-53. That triple from Charlisse was WSU’s final bucket.

A bummer of a way for things to go, particularly for Krystal whose college career was already one year longer than it should have been. After three years at Northern Colorado (playing at the NCAA National Tournament in 2018 – the school’s first ever appearance), she transferred last year to WSU, following in the direction of her former UNC head coach Kamie Ethridge, but under NCAA transfer rules that meant she had to sit out the 2019-20 season. Which due to covid didn’t actually include a tournament anyway so not the worst outcome. Plus it meant her senior year now overlapped with the freshman year of sister Charlisse and the two of them proceeded to tag-team dominate the Pac-12 division.

(Ordinarily your senior year is the last year of eligibility but there’s currently a huge asterisk to that since the NCAA has implemented a temporary rule that allows players an extra year due to last season’s wasted covid season so KLW could return if she wants to).

People knew that Charlisse was gonna be good. She debuted for the Tall Ferns at 16 years old (and was a part of the bronze medallist Comm Games squad in 2018 – in fact she was NZ’s third top scorer behind Micaela Cocks and Natalie Taylor) and has excelled for age grade national teams. But maybe people didn’t quite think she’d be Pac-12 conference Freshman of the Year good. CLW’s very first game she dropped 20 points on Washington (not to be confused with Washington State) and she proceeded offer up a whole lot more where that came from the entire rest of the way.

CLW scored 29 points in a game on three separate occasions (next season’s goal: crack the 30 mark). She scored double figures in all but two games – a pair of consecutive games against Stanford who, at the time of writing, are about to take on South Carolina in the NCAA Final Four - and scored 20+ in twelve out of 24 total games. All up she averaged 18.8 points to finish the second top scorer in the entire PAC-12 conference, which was quite possibly the strongest conference in the country this season with two Final Four representatives (Stanford & Arizona). These kinds of numbers are eye-popping for anyone but to be doing this as a freshman? That’s just ridiculous.

Her last few games did get pretty ugly as she shot a combined 5-33 against Utah & Arizona before going 4/18 in the tournament game vs South Florida... but the story of her freshman season was one of clutch shots, reliable scoring, and regular awards. She won PAC-12 Freshman of the Week honours on an incredible seven occasions. Only Kristine Anigwe (California 2015-16) has ever had more... and she was the ninth overall pick in the WNBA Draft in 2019. Kelsey Plum is the one other PAC-12 player who had seven of those awards as a freshman and she was the first overall pick in 2017. Keep in mind that Aotearoa has provided only one WNBA player in the entire history of that league. Megan Compain played five games for a total of 19 minutes for the Utah Starzz (don’t forget the second Z) back in the inaugural season of 1997. It’ll be three more years before CLW can join that elusive club because the WNBA doesn’t take draftees until they graduate college (or wait four years out of high school), bit different to the NBA in that way, but on the flipside that means three more years at Washington State and damn just think what she can achieve in that time. Like, she’s literally only gonna get better from here.

Oh and did someone say game-winners? Here’s one against that outstanding Arizona team...

And some more clutch buckets for good luck...

It would be rude not to also highlight what Krystal Leger-Walker achieved as well this season because while Charlisse got most of the accolades, KLW had her head down playing some intense defence, hitting important shots, and showing off a legitimately superb passing range as the team’s starting point guard as well. 9.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists per night. What the sisters achieved in that tough Pac-12 conference boggles the mind...

As a team, Washington State were inconsistent. There were some tough losses to go with the dramatic wins, especially late in the season when a shallow roster may well have caught up with them as fatigue set in. The Cougars finished 12-11 and only just snuck into the national tournament via selection. Their case was apparently one that went right down to the wire with experts split as to whether they’d make it (then again, ‘experts’ also predicted them to finish twelfth in the Pac-12, lol). But they got the golden ticket in then end and thus broke a thirty year tournament drought for the school.

The matchup against South Florida was definitely a winnable one and it’ll be a lingering disappointment that they didn’t get it done. After leading narrowly through most of the first quarter (Krystal getting things going with an early triple), they came out cold in the second. South Florida hit their first six shots in a row in the frame and a 15-10 lead late in the first became a 27-19 deficit. Shots weren’t dropping for Charlisse. Yet her confidence never wavered and she was able to keep things ticking over by getting to the free throw line. A few too many turnovers for both Leger-Walker sisters weren’t ideal (including one each on a pass to the other) but after holding South Florida to a mere seven points in the third they were right back in it, scores tied with ten minutes remaining. Then came that all that jazz we already talked about. Here are the box scores for the pair of them...

CLW: 40 MIN | 18 PTS (4/18 FG, 2/10 3PT, 8/8 FT) | 5 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 3 TO | 2 PF

KLW: 36 MIN | 3 PTS (1/6 FG, 1/4 3PT) | 3 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 4 TO | 5 PF

Note that Charlisse played the entire match (not uncommon in tournament basketball, but still). WSU only used three subs and none of them played more than seven minutes so it was all on the starters for the most part. And we can pick holes in the production or efficiency or whatever but fact is they were right there in position to win it near the end and they simply didn’t quite execute, so it goes.

Funky aspect of this Cougars team: it’s not only the two New Zealanders on that roster. One of the other starters is Australian (Ula Motuga) as well as another Aussie on the bench (Emma Nankervis), while they also had an Estonian starter (Johanna Teder) and a Rwandan starter (Bella Murakatete). Subs Grace Sarver and Michaela Jones were the only Americans in the rotation. Definitely a school that knows how to scout for its scholarships.

And Krystal Leger-Walker was the only senior amongst them so a good chance that they keep most of the core together for the next year or two – Krystal will have her fair share of overseas pro opportunities to weigh up but if she chooses to return for sixth year of uni, as she’s able to do with the covid waiver in place, then WSU would keep their entire starting team together. Not sure if that’ll happen but even if she doesn’t another New Zealander is on her way to pick up where she left off with Leah Mafua joining the programme after a couple of years playing junior college ball at Otero JC. Mafua originally committed to WSU in 2018 so it’s been a round trip to get here.

That’s a very stable group. And stability is the whole point because what Charlisse Leger-Walker did this season was only the start. More experience, more time, more practice, more basketball. Just see what happens next season. Then what she does next season will probably be outdone by the season after that. Then the season after that. So if you don’t know the name yet then you’d better soon get to learning it, basically. The legend continues to grow.

Now here’s how the other kiwi players at the NCAA National Tournament went in 2021...

Tegan Graham & Kaylee Smiler - Brigham Young University

BYU were dropped in the West Coast tournament by Gonzaga, going down in heartbreaking fashion to a buzzer beater in the final. Ruthless stuff. But they still made the national tourney which was an enormous relief for a team that, like WSU, was right on the edge of contention. Their coach called it a 50-50 chance. Rutgers were the team drawn against them as a 6-seed to BYU’s 11-seed but mate that meant bugger all with a couple sharpshooting Aotearoa imports coming off the bench for Brigham Young...

Tegan Graham, in her first year with the programme, is an absolute knockdown shooter from range with a bit of playmaking to her game as well. Featured in every game this season and was fifth in minutes despite only starting once. Then there’s Kaylee Smiley who was in her second season with BYU and likewise just drains those three-pointers in her sleep. Graham hit a ridiculous 44/94 for 46.8% from deep during the regular season; Smiler hit 20/51 for 39.2%. And both of them brought that particular skill to the tournament. Smiler with 3 points in 13 mins against Rutgers, making her only shot and also bagging a single rebound, a single assist, and a single steal. Graham with a hefty 31 minutes off the bench for 9 points, (3/4 3pt), 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and she was massive for BYU as they surged back in the fourth quarter for the upset.

The second round game did not repeat the magic, it was never gonna. Up against Arizona (a future Final Four team as already mentioned), defence was the main focus in a grinding contest in which BYU could only muster 9 points in the final quarter, going down 52-46. It had been tied after 3Qs. Smiler and Graham were the only two bench players used by the team in this game with Smiler scoring 3 points (1/4 3pt) in 21 minutes with a lone steal and Graham with 32 minutes scoring an impressive 13 points (5/9 FG, 3/7 3PT) with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. TG was the second top scorer for the Cougars (both BYU and WSU are known as the Cougars, oddly). Fantastic performance from her as a first year player. Five of her 13 points came in the fourth quarter (which is more than half of the team’s total for that frame), including a crucial three with two mins left to halt an 8-0 run against them.

Akienne-Tera Reed – Virginia Commonwealth

Tera Reed has dished up quality throughout her college career, although her final year saw her log her lowest ever scoring numbers for VCU as her FG% dropped from around 43% down to 36.6% this season. But that’s misleading. Reed was always regular starter for VCU and her influence was felt in a variety of ways, averaging 11.5pts/5.0reb/2.4ast to go with some excellent defence. One of her finest games was the 12p/5r/3a/4s that she supplied in the 81-69 win over Massachusetts that punched their ticket to the big show as A-10 champions. Plus she remains an incredible free throw shooter who knows how to get to the line. She shot 95/114 for 83.3% this season from the stripe. Had made the last two All-Atlantic 10 First Team selections and still cracked the third team this term despite the shooting dip.

As a 13-seed VCU were drawn to play Indiana in the first round which is about as tough a draw as they could have feared. Sure enough, in their first national tournament since 2007 (and second overall) the Rams were bossed off the court for a 63-32 defeat. Tera Reed scored 3 points on 1/8 shooting for a team that shot just 22.8% from the floor. She did have a team-high 9 rebounds though.

Tara Manumaleuga – Arizona

The Arizona Wildcats were the only of these NZ-relevant teams who were favoured in their opening round matchup; they were a 3 seed against Stony Brook and absolutely smoked them 79-44. Then they dropped BYU, as mentioned already, before crunching Texas A&M in the Sweet Sixteen by a scoreline of 74-59. Indiana then went down 66-53 in the Elite Eight and bingo there you go it’s Uconn in the Final Four for Arizona with the national title in sight.

Feels like this is burying the lede to some baffling degrees but that’s because Tara Manumaleuga isn’t really in the rotation for Arizona. In her sophomore season with the Cats she only 26 mins all regular season – although she has shown an ability to make shots throughout her college career so far. Manumaleuga was born and raised in Queensland but represented New Zealand at the U17 World Cup a couple years back where she was the team’s second top scorer... behind Charlisse Leger-Walker.

The copious blowout victories have helped her case and TM did get two mins at the end of the round one win (one of 13 players used), missing her only field goal attempt... however there’s been no such luck since. Arizona are led by Aari McDonald who is in her last year of college ball before most likely being drafted top ten in the WNBA – and she happened to be the only player in the Pac-12 conference who scored more total points than Charlisse Leger-Walker this past season.

Thomas Webley - Hartford University Hawks

Hartford got here by winning the America East conference (with a 15-9 overall record), finishing fourth in conference play but coming good in the playoffs, beating UMass Lowell 64-50 to qualify for nationals as a regional champ. Cantabrian Tom Webley played 8 scoreless minutes off the bench in that game, averaging 3.0 points, 2.6 rebounds per game across his freshman season. But then Hartford got munted by Baylor in their first round game of the tournament, 79-55. Webley with 7 mins off the bench for 2 rebounds and 2 blocks. Bit of a blowout but good experience all the same. This was Hartford’s first ever NCAA Div 1 tournament appearance.

Tobias Cameron - Abilene Christian University

Different yarn here as ACU sprung a huge upset against Texas in the first round despite barely being able to make a bucket all game. Their second half defence was insane and the Longhorns couldn’t handle it as ACU game back to win it 53-52. Cameron with 8 mins off the bench for 1 rebound (no field goals attempts).

They then took on UCLA in the second round... but this one didn’t go so flash. The Bruins may have had to come through the first four qualifying but they were careful in possession to avoid the turnover woes that Texas fell unto against ACU’s busy guards and then an 18-0 run midway through the first half blew it wide open. 67-47 was the final score in a simple one. Tobias Cameron scoring 2 points (1/3 FG) in 14 minutes with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 personal fouls.

Rough one there but overall a hugely successful season as ACU won the Southland division to qualify for nationals for the second straight time (bear in mind there was no tournament last season due to covid), and the win against Texas was their first ever W at the big show. Tobias Cameron, son of Tall Blacks legend and current head coach Pero, was a Redshirt Junior who averaged 2.6 points and 1.7 rebounds per game over the season, his minutes fluctuating as he played exclusively off the bench, highlights including 14 points in 16 mins against SFA in January and 13 points against Incarnate World (which apparently is a real name of a real university) a few weeks later.

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