Did anyone else notice that the Golden State starting 5 the last two game all have Connecticut ties? All 5 starters either went to UCONN (Stokes, Williams, Hayes) or played for the Sun (Burton, Charles). Tip Hayes did both!

Presumably yall will not be familiar with the New Zealand women’s league, but following the end of the WNBA regular season, Charlisse and Hailey will be coming to New Zealand and teaming up to play for the Tokomanawa Queens!

The league is called the Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa and is in its 5th year, comprising of 5 teams based in other cities around New Zealand. Due to the limited number of teams, the season is quite short, from end of September to mid December.

The league has been lucky enough to host a few WNBA draftees and players such as Jordan Horston (Seattle), Jihyun Park (LA Sparks), Jamie Nared, Natasha Mack (Mercury), as well as a large number of former D1 players.

HVL and CLW will also be joining Charlisse’s sister Krystal - the first time they will be playing together since when Charlisse was at WSU (prior to UCLA).

The signing of HVL is huge for the league as she is easily the biggest player the league has had the pleasure of signing. Hopefully this will lead to more WNBA talent to grace the shores of New Zealand following the regular season for futures to come!

I believe ESPN might be streaming the games for fans in the US to enjoy. Hope you can get behind and support the girls and our league!

EDIT: I have been advised that ESPN+ streams the Tauihi games

The Tokomanawa Queens took a loss in HVL and CLW first appearance in the New Zealand Tauihi League, going down to the Mainland Pouākai 114 - 77.

HVL led the Queens with 20 pts, 1 ast, 6 reb, 2 stl, 3 TO in 30 mins of action.

CLW had 19 pts, 7 ast, 4 reb, 3 stl, 1 TO in 23 mins of action, not playing the last few minutes of the 3rd quarter and the whole 4th quarter due to calf cramp.

For the Pouākai, they were simply too dominant inside, with Mikayla Vaughn (formerly Notre Dame University) taking full advantage of the weaker bigs of the Queens leading all scorers with 32 pts, 12 Rebs and 3 ast, and McKenna Dale (Brown University) with 28 pts (5/10 3pt), 19 rebs, 5 ast.

How are you out for 2 games and reconditioning for 4?

Referees and other officials decided that the court was not suitable for playing. Therefore, the game between the Tokomanawa Queens and Kahu. However, rather than turning away the fans, the players from both teams participated in a Q&A session.

I dunno if anyone else is awake right now, but Gianna's playing in the WNBL!

You can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E_2ETSwvYM

And she's playing really well, too!

I know the thumbnail has Leger-Walker, but Ballers Magazine interviewed all of them.

Apparently this was triggered in part by an offer for Ashlon Jackson from the Sparks???

Really well-made video! You can see CLW as a kid and her humble beginnings!

I'm from the South, but I've also lived in New York. I've never seen a birthday "celebration" like this one, LOL!!!