{"id":365563,"date":"2025-12-23T00:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365563\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T00:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T00:07:07","slug":"bonnie-deas-putting-wnbl-lessons-to-use-in-us-college-basketball-with-university-of-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365563\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonnie Deas putting WNBL lessons to use in US college basketball with University of Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

When guard Bonnie Deas faced Australian basketball legend Sami Whitcomb, she had 48 points dropped on her head in just two games.<\/p>\n

The freshman said it was one reason she had shot out of the gates in her American college career.<\/p>\n

Deas played for the Sydney Flames in the WNBL last season and was only expected to feature a handful of times.<\/p>\n

But, when injuries cruelled the side, she was suddenly thrust into the line-up, playing in a semifinal series against Whitcomb and eventual champions Bendigo Spirit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“That’s a WNBA player. I was having to face-guard her, and she still dropped 25 points on my head [in one game],” Deas said.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story idea about women in sport?<\/p>\n

Email us abcsport5050@your.abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

“After guarding Whitcomb, I’ve become a massive fan. The way she plays, goes about things, and how professional she is, I just absolutely love her.<\/p>\n

“I always keep looking back on my season with the Flames and just how much I’ve learned. Now in college, things are just clicking.”<\/p>\n

Deas, who plays for the University of Arkansas, is one of 119 Australian women college basketballers taking the court in the US this season.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old is thriving, breaking Arkansas freshman rebound records and averaging a double-double per game and being named Freshman of the Week after her debut game.<\/p>\n

“I took that [WNBL] opportunity to just be a sponge and soak up as much as I could,” Deas said.<\/p>\n

“It’s honestly helped with my growth in college, because I’ve been able to convert what I learned into my season.”<\/p>\n

Another emerging Australian talent, Sienna Harvey, is playing for the University of Washington, producing double-digit scoring performances and averaging 15 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

But Harvey would not have made it if not for her parents driving three-and-a-half hours to training sessions and games from Wodonga, in regional Victoria, to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

When the guard decided she wanted to make a career out of basketball, she moved to Geelong aged just 14.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“I feel bad for the kids that still have to do that, it’s a lot of travelling and everything,” Harvey said.<\/p>\n

“I knew [moving to Geelong] was going to help me and my basketball career, just because of travelling.<\/p>\n

“[Playing college basketball] just shows no matter where you come from, you can really do anything. It definitely is cool.”<\/p>\n

The US college campaign is well underway, with the regular season to finish in March, before the best teams compete for the national championship.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When guard Bonnie Deas faced Australian basketball legend Sami Whitcomb, she had 48 points dropped on her head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[5809,64,63,726,198556,724,69274,85,69276],"class_list":{"0":"post-365563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-arkansas","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-bonnie-deas","13":"tag-college-basketball","14":"tag-sami-whitcomb","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wnbl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}