Unexpected sixth season for Presbyterian women's basketball player includes dream win
COLUMBIA – Presbyterian women’s basketball player Bryanna Brady thought her career was done after last season.
The fifth-year senior, granted an extra year because of COVID, said her good-byes and had surgery on an injured hip that had been bothering her.
She never dreamed what happened next.
Brady won an appeal for a sixth season of eligibility – much to her own surprise – and not only returned to Presbyterian but led the Blue Hose to a Big South Conference tournament championship and the program’s first berth in the NCAA Tournament.
It got even better.
Presbyterian beat Sacred Heart, 49-42, Wednesday night in a First Four game at Colonial Life Arena. The Blue Hose will take the floor at 2 p.m. Friday against No. 1 overall seed and women’s basketball power South Carolina.
Brady scored 12 points and had five rebounds against Sacred Heart, reaching her team-leading average in both categories. The Blue Hose went inside to the 6-foot-3 post at a crucial time in the second half and she had six straight points to keep Presbyterian in the lead.
“I was all fine and good until, I think, about a couple hours before the game,” Brady said. “I started to feel those nerves, those butterflies. I couldn’t wait to get out there and play the game.”
Brady, from Goodyear, Ariz., played three years at UC Riverside. As a freshman, she played in nine games and averaged 5.1 minutes with one start.
“She wanted to get her freshman year back,” Presbyterian coach Alaura Sharp said. “She didn’t play a lot of minutes. That’s why they ended up giving her that year back after her appeal. The Riverside athletic director was so supportive and awesome in assisting us with the paperwork.”
Paperwork filed, the Blue Hose figured that was the end of it.
“We did not anticipate her getting that sixth year back, honestly,” Sharp said. “That’s why she had surgery in the offseason. We maybe had not elected to do that if we knew the appeal was going to go through. We were recruiting for her position.”
Not only that, but Presbyterian got a verbal commitment from a high school center just days before Brady was granted the appeal.
“The timing of that was a little tough,” Sharp said. “I went from celebrating to having to make a difficult phone call to a recruit.”
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Brady cherished the entire season, but especially the last couple of weeks and will certainly soak in the experience this weekend.
“There is so much love in my heart,” she said. “It makes me so happy for the program, for the community and for everyone involved.”
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Presbyterian beats Sacred Heart for first NCAA Women's Tournament win
