Notre Dame women’s basketball adds third transfer portal addition of the week
The Notre Dame women’s basketball roster continues to grow.
Just three days after the Irish welcomed Jenna Brown and Kylee Watson to South Bend, Texas graduate transfer center Lauren Ebo announced on Instagram she will finish her college career at Notre Dame. Ebo only has one year of eligibility remaining but can play right away as a graduate transfer.
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Ebo started her collegiate career at Penn State in 2018-19. At the time, current Notre Dame assistant Coquese Washington was the head coach of the Nittany Lions. Ebo started 18 times over the course of 59 games in two seasons at Penn State. She averaged 5.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game as a true freshman and 5.3 points and 4.8 rebounds as a sophomore.
Ebo transferred to Texas at the same time head coach Vic Schaefer moved from Mississippi State to lead the Longhorns. Ebo’s first season for Schaefer was a bit of a step back. She only started once in 22 games. She averaged 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
This past season, though, Ebo took a huge step forward and had her best season to date. She averaged 8.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in a season in which the Longhorns advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive year. She started 30 of 35 games. She had a stretch of four of five games in March in which she scored in double digits. Two of those were Big 12 Tournament games. The Longhorns won that championship.
At 6-4, Ebo doesn’t have the same sort of athleticism departed graduate student forward Maya Dodson brought to the Notre Dame lineup last season. The two are completely different players. Ebo is more of a half-court bruiser, while Dodson could run the floor and do a good bit of her damage in transition. Still, size in the post is something Notre Dame desperately needed heading into the 2022-23 season.
Watson, a transfer from Oregon State, is also 6-4 but somewhere in between Ebo and Dodson in terms of athleticism. She’ll complement Ebo’s game nicely. Brown, from Stanford, is a guard who can try to replicate some of the things Anaya Peoples and Abby Prohaska brought to the team the last few seasons. Those two left Notre Dame via the portal last month along with forward Sam Brunelle.
With Ebo, the Notre Dame roster is back up to nine scholarship players.
Current 2022-23 Notre Dame women’s basketball roster
G Jenna Brown (Gr.)
F Kylee Watson (Jr.)
C Lauren Ebo (Gr.)
G Dara Mabrey (Gr.)
G Trinity Cha* (Jr.)
G Olivia Miles (So.)
G Sonia Citron (So.)
F Natalija Marshall (Jr.)
G Sarah Cernugel* (Jr.)
F Maddy Westbeld (Jr.)
G KK Bransford^ (Fr.)
* Walk-on
^ Summer enrollee
Bold: Transfer addition
