By Tara Murray
Keilor Thunder has brought in a reinforcement in the shape of a former WNBL champion.
The Thunder announced last week that former WNBA player Jasmine Dickey would join the side for the rest of the National Basketball League 1 South women’s season.
Dickey is no stranger to Australia having been part of the Southside Flyers championship team in 2023-24.
Thunder coach Kristi Harrower said the arrival of Dickey couldn’t come at a better time.
“We got her in with Tayah [Burrows] having a season ending injury,” she said. “We might lose Lily [Carmody] back to college and Maddi Puli got injured on the weekend.
“We lose Maddy [Rocci] and Issie [Bourne] for six games.
“Jasmine’s experience and talent will be handy and I know how she plays.”
Harrower said they contacted Dickey’s agent about her joining the club and it went from there. Dickey did play with Rocci in that WNBL championship.
“She was pretty much sitting at home doing nothing,” she said. “We got her out quickly, that’s for sure.
“With the injuries we’ve had, it’s a pretty good time.”
Harrower said they always knew they would have several disruptions this season, but had even more with injuries.
On top of Burrows being ruled out for the season, Puli was waiting on results of scans on a knee injury but it didn’t look good.
Dickey said the decision to have a deeper list this season is something that has proven to be the right call.
Dickey is set to make her debut on Friday night against the Ballarat Miners..
Harrower said they would have to get Dickie up to speed quickly.
“It will take her a bit of time,” she said. “It’s hard to come in half way through the season.
“We have nine games left to get her qualified.
“We’re not sitting at the bottom of the ladder, we’re sitting 11-2 so it will take some time.
“We will ease her in with Maddy and Issie here and then she will have to take over.”
Harrower, who will also miss six games with the Opals Asia Cup campaign, said they would look to sit both Rocci and Bourne at times in the next couple of weeks,
She said they wanted to juggle the group that would play those games in the back part of the season to give themselves the best chance of finishing in the top four.
“The next three are important,” she said.
“Those six games without Issie and Maddy we need to have enough players stand up.
“We play a lot of teams in the top 10 at the moment and are fighting to get into the top eight.
“We don’t want to drop games in that time and drop out of the top four.”
