Above: Chantella Perera has joined the Rangers after an MVP season with Fresno State University in California.
By Paul Pickering
WHEN Chantella Perera completed her four-year stint with California’s Fresno State University earlier this year, she had the basketball world at her feet.
Having secured Most Valuable Player honours in her senior year at the National Collegiate Athletic Conference (NCAA) Division One school, Perera’s star was on the rise in basketball’s heartland.
But she chose to return home to join the Dandenong Rangers in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL).
While Perera’s best is still to come for the Rangers, it is no coincidence that her long-awaited arrival has been followed by a pair of wins at Stud Road.
Just as Dandenong coach Dale Waters had prophesised, Perera’s slashing offensive style and fleet-footed defence has enlivened the inconsistent Rangers.
After training briefly with Rangers during the off-season, Perera hit the ground running in her Dandenong debut against Perth on 8 December, scoring 16 points in front of her adopted home crowd.
Reflecting on her return this week, Perera said she was thrilled to be reunited with Fresno State University team-mate Faith Probst at the Rangers.
“It’s always tough to adjust to a new team and a different system, but Dale and all the girls have been good in helping me out,” she said.
“It helps to have Faith there as well, because we became really good friends (at college).”
Perera, who also has an under-21 World Championship silver medal and World University Games gold in her trophy cabinet, says the transition from college ball to the WNBL has been a quantum shift.
“They’re two totally different systems,” she said.
“It’s quicker in America, but in Australia you’ve got to use your smarts.
“It’s professional basketball, so you’re playing against older and bigger girls, and Australian basketballers are all really smart.”
Having left a college program in which she was a leader on and off the court, Perera has also had to defer to experienced players such as Larissa Anderson, Michelle Brogan, Emily McInerny and Caitlin Ryan at the Rangers.
“The way the system works over there, I finished off leading a team and now I’m learning again from the older girls here,” Perera said.
She saw that abundance of experience – as well as the youthful enthusiasm of coach Waters – as an opportunity to further develop her own game.
And while a WNBL title is at the top of her list of immediate goals, a return to America and an Australian Opals berth also looms large on the horizon.
For now, though, Perera is just happy to don the Rangers’ brand of green and gold.
“It’s good to come back home and play for my local team,” the former Nunawading Spectres junior said.
And if – for some inexplicable reason – basketball is not her destiny, the academic star also has a Business Management degree to her name, but that is the farthest thing from her mind at the moment.
“Basketball is still my priority at the moment,” she said.
“I’m really enjoying it and I just want to play as long as I can and see where it takes me.”
