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Raanana Hertzeliya Completes Roster
Safsal
,08/10/2008 |
After months of slience, last season's finalists signed four foreigners and six Israelis for the 08/09 season. Levitky and Nusel return from last season, Charde Houston is coming from Minnesota, full details inside.
Raanana Hertzeliya signed two Americans – Charde Houston of the Minnesota Lynx and Jessica Dickson who played in Croatia last year. The team also signed two bosmans – Poland's Isabela Pierkarska and Canadian Shona Thorburn.
On the Israeli front, Lena Mustafina joined from Ramat Hen where she averaged 7.7 points per game on a career low 3pt shooting percentage of 31.4%. Chen Nusel, Katia Levitzky and Hadas Levi are returning from last year. Nusel scored 5.7 ppg in 15.4 mpg last year, Levitzky contributed 5.2 points and 3.0 rebounds in 14.0 mpg.
Charde Houston is the biggest name among the new players. She is a power forward out of UConn 2008, who became a key player for the Minnesota Lynx. Houston (6'2, 22) is a very skilled offensive player, she is averaging 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game for the Lynx. She somehow fell to the 30th overall pick in the last draft but so far she is doing even better than she did in college, and ranks 7th among rookies in points per game. In her senior season with the Huskies she scored in double figures only 4 times, she has already done so 9 times in Minnesota. Houston is the backup for Nikki Anosike, who signed in Ramla.
Shona Thorburn (5'9, 26) is a Canadian point guard with a British passport, she was the 7th overall pick in the 2006 draft by Minnesota out of Utah. Thorburn is a classic case of a player who upped her stock big time in the NCAA tournament after leading Utah to an impressive winning streak which came to a stop at the Elite Eight to the future champion, Maryland Terrapins. Thorburn had a chance to win the game in regulation but made only one of her two free throws with 7 seconds left. Despite her high draft position Thorburn wasn't able to gain a spot in the Lynx rotation, the following season she had a 2-game stint with Seattle. Thorburn is a classis point guard, good passer with good decision making ability, not a great scorer but a good rebounder for her size. She was born in England but played for the Canadian national team. Last season she played in Spain and averaged 5.5 points, 2.8 boards and 0.8 assists per game.
Jessica Dickson (5'11, 23) was the 21st overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft out of South Florida. She finished her college career as the #1 scorer in South Florida history. Dickson is an athletic and versatile guard/forward, a natural scorer and a good rebounder. As a senior in college she averaged 19.6 points and 7.3 boards per game. Last winter she played in Croatia and averaged 15.6 points and 4.8 boards per game in the EuroLeague.
Isabela Pierkarska (23, 6'5) is a center out of Poland who graduated from UTEP this year. She is UTEP's all-time leading scorer, the Sacramento Monarchs drafted her with the 40th overall pick but she didn't make the final roster. As a senior in college she averaged 12.3 points and 5.3 boards per game.
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