THE Lady Bandits have looked to Europe for their latest import signing, welcoming Serbian Kristina Baltic into the fold for this season.
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The 23-year-old power forward will move to Albury once she completes a season with French club Lyon, and coach Michael Brookens is eagerly anticipating her arrival.
“Kristina is going to fit in really well with our current roster, I really can’t wait for her to come over here,” he said.
“She’s a young player that comes with a wealth of experience, which I think will be of enormous value to our younger players.
“Last season we struggled with match-ups through the centre and forward, which I think she’ll address nicely.”
Brookens drew on his own experience overseas in recruiting the 187-centimetre Serbian League Finals MVP, who he said came highly recommended by a number of colleagues.
“She’s a potential Olympic player, she works incredibly hard and began playing very high level basketball at a very young age,” he said.
“The European leagues are a wonderful place to learn how to play professional basketball, in my opinion the French first division league she’s currently playing in is just a step down from the WNBA.
“Her leadership and work ethic will be inval- uable to our team, especially our younger players.”
Baltic first represented Serbia in 2008 as an under-18.
She played for Slovan- ka in the Czech first division league for the 2013-14 season, where she averaged 12.9 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.
“Kristina’s insatiable appetite for rebounds and willingness to throw herself on the loose ball, work hard and generally put the team first makes her a tough competitor for opponents,” Brookens said.
Last year was a horror year for the Lady Bandits, winning just one game, but Brookens was confident the team would learn from that and bounce back.