Women’s Basketball adds No. 1 junior college prospect to signing class

Pronunciation Help:

Kobe King-Hawea HA-we-uh

AUSTIN, Texas — The No. 1 junior college prospect in the nation has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball next season at The University of Texas, head coach Vic Schaefer announced Monday evening. Kobe King-Hawea (Point Cook, Australia) will join the Longhorns for the 2021-22 season.

King-Hawea joins a trio of national top-20 high school recruits – Rori Harmon, Kyndall Hunter and Aaliyah Moore - in a recruiting class that is currently No. 4 nationally in the espnW HoopGurlz team rankings.

"Obviously, we are ecstatic about adding the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country to our existing outstanding recruiting class," Schaefer said. "I think the thing that sticks out most about Kobe is her versatility. She is a basketball player who can play multiple positions. Her skill set will allow her to be a tremendous mismatch, depending on what position she's playing."

"Kobe is a very smart and heady player," Schaefer continued. "She sees the floor and gets her teammates involved, as evidenced by her 5.4 assists per game average. Kobe is a first-team All-American, the only first-team All-American as a freshman in junior college. When you average almost 21 points and seven rebounds per game and throw in her 5.4 assists a night, that's a tremendous workload in basketball. She will be an impact player. I've enjoyed getting to know her mother, Chareena, and father, Parlayne, back in Australia. They are wonderful parents and are so proud and happy for their daughter that she is coming to the Forty Acres."

King-Hawea, a guard/forward originally from Point Cook, Australia who currently plays at Casper College (Casper, Wyo.) under head coach Dwight Gunnare, is ranked as the No. 1 junior college prospect in the nation in Dan Olson's Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and the World Exposure Report. As a freshman during the 2019-20 season at Gillette College (Gillette, Wyo.) under head coach Liz Lewis, King-Hawea earned NJCAA Division I first-team All-America honors and was the only freshman to earn a spot on the first team.

King-Hawea averaged a team-best 20.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists in a team-high 29.5 minutes per contest while starting all 33 games and leading Gillette to a 28-5 overall record. She earned NJCAA Region IX Division I-North Most Valuable Player and All-Tournament honors last year, as she led the division in scoring and assists and ranked second in rebounding.

King-Hawea set a school single-season record with 675 points (surpassing the previous mark of 558 by Kenosha Wright in 2012-13). She also set school records for most field goals in a season (284), most field goals in a game (16) and most steals in a game (10). King-Hawea recorded the first triple-double in Gillette program history with her 12-point, 13-rebound, 10-steal effort against Bismarck State.

2021-22 Texas Women's Basketball Recruiting Class (as of Nov. 16, 2020)

Name	Yr	Pos	Ht	Hometown (High School)
Rori Harmon	Fr.	G	5-6	Houston, Texas (Cypress Creek)
Kyndall Hunter	Fr.	G	5-7	Houston, Texas (Cypress Creek)
Kobe King-Hawea	So.	G/F	5-11	Point Cook, Australia (Casper College [Wyo.])
Aaliyah Moore	Fr.	F	6-1	Moore, Okla. (Moore)

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

Women’s Basketball adds No. 1 junior college prospect to signing class