CHARGERS GET SMART
THE Hobart Chargers have signed American Brittany Smart for the coming SEABL basketball season. The 32-year-old only recently played in the WNBL finals with Melbourne Boomers, who lost to Townsville in three games. Smart will arrive in Hobart a week before the first game of the season.
FOR the first time in Dwain Davie’s coaching tenure he will be armed with a bona fide point guard after he secured the services of a WNBL quality playmaker.
The Hobart Chargers have signed American Brittany Smart for the coming SEABL season.
The 32-year-old only recently played in the WNBL finals with Melbourne Boomers, who lost to Townsville in three games.
Since taking the reins from Mark Nash, Davie has not had an out and out primary ball carrier at his disposal, with the likes of Izzy Chilcott, Alex Ciabattoni and even Kathleen Scheer assuming duties.
But the addition of Smart — who led the SEABL in scoring in her debut season with Sandringham in 2015 — will not only free up Scheer in the front court but allow the developing local talent to play their natural roles.
“Brittany is a WNBL quality import guard, played for the Melbourne Boomers for the last three years and just finished off in the grand final series and previously played with Sandringham,” Davie said. “We are really excited to have her on board. She is a quality scoring option in the guard position but also can defend, rebound and is a really good distributor as well.
“She fits what we are looking for.
“The local girls have done a really good job, particularly last year, of filling that role and taking on that pressure.
“Having a quality scoring point guard like that can take some pressure off them and really allows us to have a bit more flexibility with our local players.”
Hailing from Xenia, Ohio, Smart rounds out Hobart’s recruiting, with Scheer and the returning Klara Wischer to complement a host of emerging Tasmanians.
With just over a month to the start of the season Davie said his squad was streets ahead of where it had been in the past two years, with Wis- cher already in town and Smart to arrive in the week before the opening match.
Scheer, who is currently playing in Poland with Cosinus Widzew Lodz, where she is leading the team in points, rebounds, blocks and steals, will miss Round 1.