The super sophomore, now rising-junior, class for the Lady Raiders gets one more talented member in the form of Odessa College 5'11 point guard Ivana Krajina. In addition to earning First-Team All-American honors, she led Odessa to it's first NJCAA tournament appearance in five years and was named the Player of the Year in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference.
Krajina moved from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina when she was 15 before coming to the United States to play college basketball prior to last season. While she found some success as a freshman, she really stepped up her play this season averaging 18.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.4 steals a game.
It's no secret this team is in search of point guard depth and Krajina certainly fits that mold. Most of all she isn't afraid of hard work and going all in on whatever role her team needs to win. This was something her head coach at Odessa praised in an article with the Odessa American prior to their tournament appearance.
"She has been a great team player," head coach Franqua Bedell said. "She works her tail off. She's in this gym practicing all the time, working on her craft. She's the heartbeat and has truly helped cement the culture of where we're at and that's just a testament to who she is as a person and how hard she works to be the best version of herself."
Behind Krajina's play and leadership, Odessa College broke a postseason drought of five years to earn a national 7 seed and nearly upset 2 seeded Wabash Valley in the third round of the NJCAA National Tournament last month. It only feels right that her next step is to join a group motivated to break their own tournament drought and go dancing next March in a Lady Raider uniform. Bling Bling dreams.
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Hopefully the tide is turning for the Lady Raiders. Looking forward to seeing this new point guard which will allow Bailey to move and not have to carry that responsibility.