THE General Roberts Hotel Newcastle Falcons are excited to announce the signing of former University of Miami Hurricanes playmaker Mykea Gray for the rest of the NBL1 East season.
The 24-year-old point guard is scheduled to arrive in Newcastle this Easter weekend with a view to training with her new teammates next week and making her Australian debut against our archrivals Maitland Mustangs at Maitland Federation Centre on Saturday, April 15.
“I’m extremely happy and grateful to have this opportunity to come to Newcastle and play in Australia,” Gray said.
“I love the game and I’m excited about this opportunity, and I just want to help the team.”
Originally from Upper Marlboro in Maryland, east of Washington DC, Gray began her college career at Miami in 2017. She played 127 games for the Hurricanes over four seasons, averaging 10.5 points, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals a game in the NCAA Division 1 Atlantic Coast Conference.
She missed the entire 2020-21 season recovering from a knee injury but returned for her senior year in 2021-22, and will arrive in Newcastle after professional stints in Puerto Rico and Portugal.
Standing at 163cm tall, the diminutive guard is known as an up-tempo ball-handler and distributor and a defensive dynamo who will add some experience to the Falcons’ back-court.
“Everything about Mykea looks great, and from talking to her and researching her, she seems like first and foremost, a good person,” Falcons women’s coach Martin McLean said.
“Mykea is a small but very quick point guard who looks to push, looks for teammates, can shoot the ball, but also plays defence. She made conference first-team all-defence back in college at Miami, so on the face of it, she looks like she will fit in very well with us.
“She’s had some experience now in European competitions and is looking at proving herself here.”
Gray will join a Falcons team unbeaten after four games. After the Maitland match-up on April 15, the Falcons will return home to host Hills Hornets in women’s and men’s games on Sunday, April 23.