KRISTY Wallace is set to make her debut for one of Australia’s best female sporting teams.

The former Coffs Harbour Suns junior has been selected for the Australian Opals squad to take part in the upcoming FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Jordan.

The 25-year-old has previously represented Australia at the junior level, making her international debut for the Australian Gems at the 2014 FIBA Oceania Under-18 Championship in Fiji, while also winning a bronze medal with the Gems at the Under-19 World Championship in Russia in 2015.

Wallace will now take part in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup as part of an Opals team taking on Asia’s best teams, as they look to qualify for next year’s FIBA Women’s World Cup in Sydney.

She and the Opals will also be out to win the Asia Cup for the first time, when they begin their Asian Cup campaign against Chinese Taipei on 27 September.

The former Coffs Harbour player expressed the great honour of wearing the green and gold for the first time.

“There is nothing better and it is such an honour and a privilege to have my name and be able to put on a singlet for Australia.”

Wallace had fond memories of her time playing on the courts of Coffs Harbour.

“It was a really, really cool time for me because nothing else mattered, it was just getting to the court and playing basketball with friends,’ she said.

Coffs Harbour Suns juniors coach Laurie Van Loo recalled the tremendous talent of the former Coffs junior.

“My first earliest memories of Kristy was this little tiny girl that came out and had so much talent and her ball skills were phenomenal, and she was just running rings around everyone,” she said.

After spending her junior years playing for the Coffs Harbour Suns, Wallace received a scholarship to play basketball at powerhouse Baylor University in 2014.

She had a stellar college career making the first team All-Big 12 Conference team as a senior in 2018, after a season in which she averaged 12.9 points at 50.2% shooting, 5.3 assists, and 5 rebounds, as well as being named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team.

This saw her talents noticed by the best female league in the world in the WNBA, as she was drafted by the Atlanta Dream in 2018.

Unfortunately, ACL injuries have limited her playing time in the past few years and she has yet to make her WNBA debut.

Wallace has previously played for the Canberra Capitals and currently plays for the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL1 competition.

 

By Aiden BURGESS