June 6, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - Three former Penn State Lady Lions, Helen Darling, Kelly Mazzante and Tanisha Wright, are on opening day WNBA rosters as the season opens today. Penn State's three WNBAers are tied with Purdue for the most among Big Ten teams. Mazzante and Darling will square off in the season opener at Phoenix at 10 p.m., while Seattle opens its season at Sacramento.
Darling is in her third season with the San Antonio Silverstars and ninth season in the league overall. She had five points in 12 minutes in her only preseason game. Darling accounted for 3.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists as she led the Silverstars to the WNBA Finals. She earned 14 starts in 31 games last season. In her eight seasons as a WNBA player, Darling averages 4.5 points, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 2.1 rebounds per game.
Mazzante is in her third season with the Phoenix Mercury and her sixth WNBA season overall. In two preseason appearances, she averaged 4.0 point, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 steals. Mazzante, who was part of the 2007 WNBA Championship team, accounted for 5.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game last season. She connected on 33.1% of her shots from three-point range in 34 games a year ago. For her career, Mazzante averages 5.1 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game.
Wright is in her fifth season with the Seattle Storm. She tallied a team-best 16 points to go along with two rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in a preseason loss to Phoenix. She had a career year for the Storm last season as she posted career-highs in points (7.9 ppg), rebounds (116), assists (84) and steals (31). Wright was one of four Storm players to appear in all 34 games, including five starts in place of Sue Bird. Wright is averaging 4.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists with a 41.5% field goal percentage and a 79.0% free throw percentage in her WNBA career.