UNM women鈥檚 basketball reaches across borders to beef up roster
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women鈥檚 basketball team added another international recruit to its 2021-22 roster when it inked 6-foot-1 forward Paula Reus to a roster spot on Tuesday. Reus joins a new-look Lobo roster which now includes four European players: Reus from Spain, freshman point guard Rebeka Renczes from Hungary, freshman guard Zeyno Isil Seren from Turkey and sophomore guard Kath van Bennekom from the Netherlands.
When asked about the team鈥檚 deep international recruiting ties, head coach Mike Bradbury made sure not to give away too many specifics.
鈥淲e keep in contact with one international recruiting service. They let us know about players they think will fit our style and we follow up from there,鈥� Bradbury told the .
Bradbury is also set to welcome three domestic freshmen to Albuquerque this summer. Viane Cumber, a 5-foot-10 guard, is a local product from Sandia High. Joining Cumber will be fellow freshmen Aniyah Augmon, a 5-foot-8 guard from San Jose, Calif. and Mackenzie Curtis, a high-volume scorer that prepped in San Diego at El Capitan High.
Many consider Curtis a huge get for the Lobos. Curtis finished third in scoring (22.6 ppg) in the San Diego Section of California and her brother, Dylan, served as a student-manager for the San Diego State women鈥檚 team. One other small-world connection for Curtis and UNM-conference-foe-SDSU: SDSU head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson has her playing jersey retired at Curtis鈥� alma mater, El Capitan.
At the time of her signing, Coach Bradbury , 鈥渁 tremendous scoring punch from the wing spot鈥� and 鈥渙ne of the leading scorers in the entire country and she is one of the best shooters I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥�
If it seems like the 2021-22 UNM squad may look a bit different, that鈥檚 because it will. The Lobos lost six from last year鈥檚 team to the semi-new NCAA Transfer Portal: Ahlise Hurst (12.4 ppg), Corina Carter (6.4 ppg), Autumn Watts (2.6 ppg), Azaria Robinson (1.5 ppg), Andriana Avent and Celine Dupont. All told, the Lobos lost over 28% of its scoring to the portal.
Bradbury is also conducting a national search to replace veteran assistant coach Bill Ferrara. Ferrara left Albuquerque earlier this offseason to join Joe Tartamella鈥檚 bench at St. John鈥檚 University in Queens, N.Y.
Some good news for the Lobos? Fifth-year guard Jaedyn De La Cerda and senior guard LaTascya Duff, both All-Conference in the Mountain West, return to lead UNM in its defense of the regular-season Mountain West crown, during which it finished 11-3 in conference while playing all its home games away from Albuquerque due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.