The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN national basketball standout Leashja Grant has paid immediate dividends for the Texas Tech Raiders in her first season with the programme.

The junior front-court player has stepped directly into the starting lineup to average a near double double thus far on the season and leads the team in several statistical categories.

Grant has scored 10.8 points and pulled down a team high 9.2 points per game. She also leads the team in field goal percentage at 61 per cent and blocks at 1.5 per game.

After a slow start to the season, Grant has been on a tear in recent games. She posted her best outing last week with 26 points and 15 rebounds in the Red Raiders’ 79-45 win over Niagra.

Grant started the season slow with six points and nine rebounds in her debut. She followed with games of four points and three rebounds, nine points and five rebounds. Her breakout performance came with seven points and 11 rebounds against Idaho State followed by her first double double of the year, 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Texas Tech has raced out to a 5-1 record, well ahead of last year’s pace when they finished the season just under the postseason qualifying mark of .500.

The Red Raiders faced the Idaho Vandals last night, however results were unavailable up to press time.

Following her record-breaking season in the junior college ranks, Grant made the progression to an NCAA Division I programme when she transferred to the Red Raiders.

In her sophomore and final season with the Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals, Grant averaged a double double with 12.1 points and 12.9 rebounds per game.

Her highlight of the season came in January when she grabbed 31 rebounds to become the school’s single game leader and broke Portia Hill’s 27-year-old record. The 6’2” front court player has added depth and a post presence to a Lady Red Raiders team that missed the NCAA tournament last year.

Grant helped the Cardinals to claim an eighth straight Region XIV championship and national tournament berth. She posted 23 double doubles in 34 games, including six games with at least 18 rebounds or more.

Her season high scoring effort came in January when she totalled 27 points in a 72-66 win over Tyler Junior College in January.

Locally, she is one of a core group of young collegiate players tapped to lead the Bahamas’ path to possible Olympic qualification for the women’s national basketball team at the Tokyo Games in 2020.

Her team fell just short of advancing to the CentroBasket tournament, but at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships in July 2014 in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, the team did defeat the No.37 ranked country in the world, the Dominican Republic.

Grant averaged nine points and nine rebounds in five games of the tournament, in her debut as a member of a senior national team.

Grant is the daughter of longtime CR Walker head basketball coach Trevor Grant.