Nicole Enabosi wowed University of Delaware fans starring on the basketball court from 2015-20.
Now the former Blue Hen will step onto her sport’s biggest stage at the Summer Olympics in Paris.
The 6-foot Enabosi plays for four-time defending African champion Nigeria.
Though Enabosi grew up in Maryland and starred at Our Lady of Good Counsel in high school, her mother, Ora, was born in Nigeria. Enabosi had frequently traveled there to visit family.
How did Enabosi land on Nigeria’s roster?
Enabosi began training with and trying out for Nigerian national teams while catching the attention of coaches with her exploits at Delaware.
In fact, she tore her ACL during national team tryouts in August of 2018, which caused her to miss what would have been her fourth season as a Blue Hen in 2018-19.
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She closed her UD career in 2019-20 while earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business. Since then, Enabosi has played professionally in Europe, most recently with Toulouse and Chartres in France.
Over the past three years, Enabosi has played in 16 games for Nigeria at two AfroBasket championships and in World Cup and Olympic qualifying. She has averaged 3.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
When does Nigeria play in Paris?
D’Tigress, as the Nigerian team is called, have group games against Australia at 5 a.m. EDT July 29, 11:15 a.m. versus host France on Aug. 1 and 7:30 a.m. against Canada on Aug. 4.
Teams will be bidding for berths in the Aug. 7 quarterfinals.
This is Nigeria’s third Olympic women’s basketball trip. It lost all three games in Tokyo in 2021 and went 1-5 in its 2004 Athens appearance.
What were Enabosi’s Blue Hen highlights
There were many.
Enabosi quickly established herself as a freshman in 2014-15 as a player who would become one of the best in UD history, being the first player to record double-doubles in her first three games. She was a Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team pick.
She was then first-team All-CAA as a sophomore and a junior, when she also added CAA Player of the Year honors. Enabosi led the CAA in both scoring (18.0 points per game) and rebounding (11.8) in her 2017-18 junior year and her 378 rebounds and 23 double-doubles set UD single-season school records.
After missing the next season due to the knee injury, Enabosi returned in 2019-20 and earned her third first-team All-CAA selection.
She closed her career as Delaware’s all-time leader in rebounds (1,097), field-goal percentage (.492) and double-doubles (52).
Only 2016 Olympian Elena Delle Donne scored more points than Enabosi’s 1,676.
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
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