WBB | A New Vibe for Saint Mary's 2023-24 Women's Basketball Team

Photo by: SMC Athletics / Emily Smith

WBB | A New Vibe for Saint Mary's 2023-24 Women's Basketball Team

10/29/2023 11:31:00 AM | Women's Basketball

MORAGA, Calif. – A new season brings new energy and optimism for the Saint Mary's Women's Basketball team, who have a new coaching staff and five new players joining several key returners from last season.

The Gaels are set to tip off the 2023-24 season with an exhibition game against Chico State at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, October 30. They'll begin the regular season on the road and Grand Canyon University on November 6 and will play their home opener on November 12 vs. UC San Diego at 1:00 pm.

KEY RETURNERS
Saint Mary's returns starters Ali Bamberger, Tayla Dalton, Leia Hanafin, and Hannah Rapp from last season.

Bamberger was named to the WCC All-Preseason Team after making WCC All-First Team for the second-straight season last year. She averaged 14.2 ppg and 8.4 rpg to lead the Gaels, and finish ninth and third in the WCC respectively.

The Walnut Creek, Calif. native shot 46.9% from the field, 32.9% from three-point range, and 70.9% from the free-throw line. She finished first on the team in total rebounds with 227, second on the team in blocks with 24, and third in steals with 24.

Bamberger scored a career-high 26 points at Boise State on December 10, and tied a Division-I program record with 24 rebounds at San Diego in 40 minutes played to along with 23 points and five blocks.

She also crossed the 600-career-rebound threshold last season with nine rebounds versus Pacific in the WCC Tournament, to give her 533 at SMC and 71 with Washington. Bamberger shot a perfect 9 for 9 from the field at San Francisco last January 14, finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Hanafin established herself as a key player in the Gaels rotation last season when she set career highs in games played (31), starts (28), assists (78), assists per game (2.5), steals (37), rebounds (124), and rebounds per game (4.0). She led the team in blocked shots with 30, which is tied for 10th in a single season at SMC.

The Melbourne, Australia native recorded three blocks in a game twice on the year, doing it back-to-game games in the regular season finale against Pacific and in the first round of the WCC Tourney vs. LMU.

Dalton played in 31 games with 24 starts, and averaged 7.4 ppg and shot 76.5% at the free-throw line in 2022-23, ranking on third on the team in both categories. She finished second on the team in steals with 36, and had a season-high 20 points scored while shooting 6 of 10 from three-point range at Montana State. The Auckland, New Zealand native played on the Tall Ferns New Zealand National Team this summer that finished fourth overall in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup.

Rapp was force on the boards last season when she played in 31 games with 24 starts, setting career highs in nearly every statistical category, including ppg (7.0, fourth on the team), rebounds (172) and rpg (5.5) which were both second on the Gaels. Her 66 assists were also second on the team, as was her field goal percentage of 45.6%. She scored a career-high 16 points against USF on 7 of 12 shooting and recorded her first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in 35 minutes vs. UC Davis.

The Gaels did lose the WCC's all-time leading three-point shooter in Taycee Wedin, as she finished her college career with 407 threes. They also saw regular rotation members and contributors graduate in Jade Kirisome, Clair Steele, and Amy West.

They plan to make up for Wedin's outside shooting and spreading out the defense with several players getting the opportunity for more shots from the perimeter and in the mid-range.

GAELS NEWCOMERS
The team added five new players to the fold in Emily Foy, Ruby Vlahov, Zeryhia-Lee Aokuso, Nadia Bernard, and Maia Jones now being eligible to play.

Vlahov was a captain of the Western Australian State teams for the U16 and U20 age groups and would have been on the U18 Team as well before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled it. She was a member of the Australian U17 and U19 squads and attended multiple developmental and national performance camps with Basketball Australia.

She played part of her high-school career at Marist High School in Eugene, Ore. and was named to the Oregon 4A All-State team in 2018-19 before returning to Australia to finish high school, graduating in December of 2021. Vlahov was selected as a member of the NBA Academy Women's Program and was one of just seven Australians invited to attend the WNBA Academy Showcase in New Orleans in 2020. She was a development player for the WNBL Perth Lynx, where she trained with the team and played in 2023 season for Perry Lakes Hawks in NBL1 East.

Jones graduated high school a semester early, and was able to redshirt while being around the team last season to practice with the squad and get started on her college academics. The 5-foot-10 guard was a member of the U17 New Zealand Junior National team who competed at the 2022 World Championships in Hungary. The captain of the squad averaged just under 10 points per game, with a high of 18 points in their final classification game of the tournament vs. Egypt. She hit five threes in a win over Mali in group play and had a double-double (12 points & 10 rebounds) in a win over Argentina in the round of 16.

She led her high school team (Waimea College) to a spot in the Secondary School Nationals, finishing ninth, and led the tournament in scoring, averaging 35.7 ppg. She won four-straight MVP awards for Waimea College Sport and was awarded the Glue Family Cup for greatest Achievement in Sport. She was also selected to attend the prestigious Steven Adams Invitational camp in 2021 and 2022.

Foy was second-highest point scorer at the Australia National Championships in 2022, after scoring 47 points in the final. She was selected to the New South Whales All-Schools Honorary team in 2021 and the NSW All-Schools Team 2022. Foy made the School Sport Australia Honorary team in 2022, NSW CCC Blue award for Basketball in 2022, and was the St Francis Xavier's College Sports Woman of the Year 2022. She was originally committed to Long Beach State before deciding to follow coach Cammon up north to Saint Mary's.

Bernard also followed Cammon up to SMC. The 6-foot-4 forward/center played just one year of varsity basketball in high school as a junior, but averaged 13 ppg, 9.4 rpg, and 3.3 bpg. That year she was named team MVP, captain, and All-Foothill League honorable mention.

Aokuso comes to the Gaels from Texas where she was twice named All-Third District at Amarillo High, including earning the league MVP in 2023. She led teams that were District champs all three years she was on varsity, and the team advanced to the Geico Championship as a senior.

THE NEW "JEFE"
Coach Cammon comes to the Gaels after he was named The Big West Coach of the Year for leading the Long Beach State to their first 20-win season since 2016-17. They won 15-straight games from January 12 to March 2, the longest in the Big West last year. The team's 17 Big West wins were the most conference victories since 1988-89 and Cammon's teams are coming off back-to-back WNIT appearances.

As a team, the Beach ranked in the Top 10 nationally in steals per game (11.5) and turnover margin (6.1), as Cammon was the Beach's first Big West Coach of the Year since 2005-06. SMC will put a priority on defense under coach Cammon, while also adapting offensively to the personnel on hand.

The Gaels will open the season at Grand Canyon University on November 6 for the first ever meeting between the two programs. GCU is coming off a 21-10 season where they reached the semifinals of the WAC tournament.

Saint Mary's will start their home schedule on November 12 against UCSD. Fans can Click here to purchase tickets for the 2023-24 Saint Mary's Women's Basketball Season.

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