Tamika Nurse, a member of the Canadian Junior National team, signed a national letter of intent with the Oregon women’s basketball team yesterday.
The 5-foot-9 point guard from St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, will join the Ducks for the 2005-06 season and is expected to replace current senior Corrie Mizusawa as the Ducks’ point guard next year.
“She’s got great speed … in the full court and has really good quickness in the half court to break people down,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “We have a need
for speed in that position. Defensively, she’s a very aggressive, tough defender, particularly on the ball.”
Nurse competed on the Canadian Junior National team last summer where she was the team’s second-leading scorer and assists leader. She helped the team qualify for the World Championships for the first time in Canadian history.
A two-time MVP in the Canadian
National Junior championships, she also was a member of the Hamilton Transway club team that won seven provincial championships.
She comes from an athletic family — her father played in the CFL, mother played college basketball at McMaster
University in Hamilton and her aunt,
married to the Philadelphia Eagles’
Donovan McNabb, was a basketball standout at Syracuse.

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