Charlisse Leger-Walker has yet again created New Zealand Basketball history, becoming the first female NCAA champion from Aotearoa, and the first New Zealand Māori-Samoan to win a NCAA national title as her UCLA Bruins downed the South Carolina Gamecocks 79-51 in Phoenix, Arizona.
It’s a story unwritten before in New Zealand’s storied sporting history, as Leger-Walker’s incredible comeback from an ACL tear that saw her red-shirt her first year on UCLA’s Westwood campus.
The national championship the perfect way to end one of New Zealand’s greatest, if not the greatest collegiate career we’ve seen to date.
“Surreal. I don’t even think I’ve fully processed it yet, but just so proud. So grateful that I’m here playing. And just so proud of my teammates, they’re amazing.”
The ever humble Leger-Walker shouting out her Bruins teammates, as she has done all year. The fifth-year graduate senior today contributing 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block to help her teams cause.
It was a team effort, with all five of six UCLA seniors contributing double digit scoring, with the final senior, Angela Dugalic not far behind them with 9 points of her own. The Bruins top scorer, Gabriela Jacquez with 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
It was a dominant performance for the Bruins, going wire-to-wire to take down South Carolina. When asked about when she knew her UCLA squad a locked up the schools first NCAA women’s basketball championship, Leger-Walker knew the Bruins had been dominant across the game, but wasn’t quite sure just how dominant until a passing moment in the final quarter.
“I actually didn’t realise the score until I looked up in the fourth and saw we were already up 30. It’s hard because you have to balance staying present in the moment and finishing it out and finishing strong. But also knowing that we weren’t going to let anything get in the way of us winning this national championship.”
A fitting end to such a glittering, award laden, record-breaking collegiate career. Charlisse Leger-Walker exiting the world of college hoops with the most NCAA Division 1 points ever scored by a New Zealander (2,061 points at an average of 14.4 PPG), and just 20 assists short of tying sister Krystal’s NCAA Division 1 Kiwi assist record (622).
While we sit in anticipation and wait for her next move, there’s no doubt that this wāhine toa will continue to flag the New Zealand flag high on the global stage.
