Temi Fagbenle

British basketball player

Temi Fagbenle
Fagbenle in 2019
No. 14 – Indiana Fever
PositionForward
LeagueWNBA
Women's British Basketball League
EuroCup Women
Personal information
Born (1992-09-08) 8 September 1992 (age 31)
Baltimore, Maryland
NationalityNigerian/British
Listed height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight197 lb (89 kg)
Career information
High school
  • Copthall School
    (London, England)
  • Blair Academy
    (Blairstown, New Jersey)
College
WNBA draft2016: 3rd round, 35th overall pick
Selected by the Minnesota Lynx
Playing career2017–present
Career history
2017–2019Minnesota Lynx
2017–2019CCC Polkowice
2019BOTAŞ
2019–2020Perfumerías Avenida
2020–2021Reyer Venezia
2021–2022Çukurova Basketbol
2022-2023ZVVZ USK Praha
2023–presentLondon Lions
2024–presentIndiana Fever
Career highlights and awards

Tèmítọ́pẹ́ Títílọlá Olúwatóbilọ́ba Fagbenle is a British professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the London Lions of the Women's British Basketball League. She was chosen for the Great Britain team at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Fagbenle was born on 8 September 1992 to a Nigerian family in Baltimore, Maryland, and has eleven siblings, including actor O. T. Fagbenle, film producer Luti Fagbenle, and video producer Oladapo 'Daps' Fagbenle.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Her family moved to London, United Kingdom when she was aged 2 and she began playing basketball at the Haringey Angels club.[8] When she was fifteen she returned to the United States to study at Blair Academy in New Jersey.[5] She attended Harvard University before transferring to the University of Southern California for her final year of NCAA basketball.[6] As of 2012[update] she was 1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in) tall and weighs 79.5 kilograms (175 lb).[4]

Basketball career

Smiling Fagbenle dancing with young girl fan
Fagbenle dancing with a fan in 2017

During her time at Blair Academy Fagbenle was voted on to the McDonald's All American High School team.[5] She has represented Great Britain at the under-16, 18 and 20 levels and competed at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship held in Serbia.[6]

She was named in the British team for the women's basketball tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London having been fast-tracked into the senior side from the under-20s.[9] She averaged 4.8 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.2 blocks and 1 steal in 19.2 minutes per game. GB went 0-5 and failed to qualify from their group.[10]

Her selection for the Olympics came after a 12-month period in which she was unable to play for the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) declaring her ineligible.[6] Fagbenle had taken the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam whilst at school in the UK and NCAA rules say that an athlete must be enrolled in college within two years of sitting for the exam; Fagbenle took an additional year to graduate from high school because she repeated a year after moving to the United States.[11]

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader
† Denotes seasons in which Fagbenle won a WNBA championship

WNBA

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2017† Minnesota 21 0 4.2 .500 .000 .778 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.4 1.2
2018 Minnesota 30 2 9.4 .506 .000 .696 2.0 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.7 3.1
2019 Minnesota 18 0 15.1 .519 .167 .722 2.9 0.8 0.3 0.3 1.8 5.4
Career 3 years, 1 team 69 2 9.3 .511 .167 .720 1.9 0.5 0.2 0.3 0.9 3.1

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2017† Minnesota 2 0 2.0 .667 .000 .000 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0
2018 Minnesota 1 0 24.0 .875 1.000 .000 4.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 15.0
2019 Minnesota 1 0 16.0 .500 .000 .000 1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 4.0
Career 3 years, 1 team 4 0 11.0 .733 1.000 .000 1.5 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.0 5.8

College

Harvard and Southern California statistics

Source[12]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2012-13 Harvard 29 358 57.8% 66.7% 68.4% 7.7 1.1 1.0 1.3 12.3
2013-14 Harvard 30 391 53.9% 28.6% 70.5% 9.3 1.7 0.8 1.4 13.0
2014-15 Harvard 28 403 48.1% 22.2% 77.3% 10.4 2.0 1.3 1.0 14.4
2015-16 Southern California 32 436 51.4% 25.0% 70.5% 8.7 1.3 1.8 1.2 13.6
Career 119 1588 52.5% 11.1% 72.2% 6.8 1.5 1.2 1.2 13.3

References

  1. ^ "Temi Fagbenle". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA.
  2. ^ Fagbenle, Temi (7 July 2012). "Passions: Basketball star loves to tread the boards" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  3. ^ "Temi Fagbenle has many ambitions, and one is to play for the Lynx". Star Tribune.
  4. ^ a b "Temi Fagbenle". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  5. ^ a b c Gallagher, Brendan (31 May 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle to take centre stage for British team after being fast-tracked from juniors". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d McCluskey, Jack (25 July 2012). "Temi Fagbenle on English holiday". ESPN Boston. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  7. ^ Henson, Mike (4 February 2020). "Haringey, Harvard & Hollywood: The fabulous Temi Fagbenle and family". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  8. ^ "The fabulous Miss Fagbenle & family". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  9. ^ Telegraph Staff (22 June 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle in Team GB women's basketball squad". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Temi Fagbenle's profile - 2012 Olympic Women". FIBA. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  11. ^ Nocera, Joe (27 January 2012). "Et Tu, Harvard?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  12. ^ "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

External links

  • Harvard Crimson bio
  • USC Trojans bio
  • v
  • t
  • e
Minnesota Lynx 2017 WNBA champions