Alysha Clark
Clark at Madison Square Garden in 2015
No. 7 – Las Vegas Aces
PositionSmall forward
LeagueWNBA
Personal information
Born (1987-07-07) July 7, 1987
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
NationalityAmerican / Israeli
Listed height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight167 lb (76 kg)
Career information
High schoolMount Juliet
(Mount Juliet, Tennessee)
College
WNBA draft2010: 2nd round, 17th overall pick
Selected by the San Antonio Silver Stars
Playing career2010–present
Career history
2012–2020Seattle Storm
2010–2011Hapoel Rishon LeZion
2011–2013A.S. Ramat HaSharon
2014–2016Maccabi Bnot Ashdod
2016–2017Adana ASKİ SK
2017–2018CCC Polkowice
2018–2022ASVEL
2022–presentElitzur Ramla
2023-presentLas Vegas Aces
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com

Alysha Angelica Clark (born July 7, 1987) is an American-Israeli professional basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Israeli team Elitzur Ramla. In college, she led the NCAA in scoring three years in a row. She was drafted in the second round of the 2010 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars. In 2018, Clark won a championship with the Seattle Storm as they swept the Mystics in the 2018 WNBA Finals, and in 2020 won her second championship as the Storm swept the Las Vegas Aces. She won her third WNBA championship with the Las Vegas Aces in 2023. She was also the Most Valuable Player in the league in 2018 when her team CCC Polkowice of Poland in the Basket Liga Kobiet Basketball won that league's championship. In 2019, she won a Ligue Féminine de Basketball championship with her French team, Lyon Asvel. Clark is known for her swarming defense and clutch shooting.

Early life

Clark was born in Denver, Colorado to Jan and Duane Clark, who were both musicians. She is the younger sister of American Idol contestant Corey Clark. Clark's maternal grandparents were Jews and could speak Hebrew.[1] However, she was baptized as a child and identified as a Christian.[2] It wasn’t until she began playing in Israel that she was considered Jewish (her maternal grandparents were Jewish).[3][4] She subsequently began to explore her Jewish roots and became an Israeli citizen.[3]

The family later moved to her hometown of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where she attended Mt. Juliet High School.[5] There, she played basketball, and as a senior averaged 24 points and 11.6 rebounds, while shooting 78 percent from the foul line and 67 percent from the floor.[6] She was named an AAU All-American, the 3A Miss Basketball, picked by the Tennessean as its Midstate Player of the Year, voted to the Girl's All-Southern Basketball Team by the Orlando Sentinel, named the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year, named to the Tennessee All-Star Team, named Tennessee tournament Most Valuable Player.[6]

College career

Clark played her first two years of college basketball at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. At Belmont she helped the Lady Bruins[lower-alpha 1] to their first ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2007. As a freshman, she led the conference in total points, field goals, and free throws, and was named Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, selected to the All-Atlantic Sun First Team and to the league's All-Freshman Team, and was named to the Atlantic Sun All-Tournament Team.[6] In 2006–07 she led the A-Sun Conference with 17.0 points per game, 12.6 rebounds per game, and a .580 field goal percentage.[7] She was named the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year for the second year in a row, and the Atlantic Sun Tournament Most Valuable Player.[6]

After two years she transferred to Middle Tennessee State University. Clark sat out the 2007–08 season, as then required by NCAA rules for transfer students.[lower-alpha 2] In 2008–09, she led the NCAA with 27.3 points and led the Sun Belt Conference with 9.8 rebounds per game, led the conference and was 4th in the NCAA with a .609 field goal percentage, was 2nd in the conference with a .787 free throw percentage, and was 4th in the conference with 2.1 steals per game.[7] She was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Player of the Year, and the Sun Belt Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.[6] Clark became the first basketball player ever to be named Player of the Year in two different Division I conferences.[8][lower-alpha 3]

In 2009–10 she again led the NCAA, this time with 28.3 points per game, led the Sun Belt Conference with 11.6 rebounds per game, was 4th in the conference with 2.4 steals per game, and was 9th in the conference with 3.4 assists per game.[7][9] In her two seasons with the school she led NCAA Division I in scoring both seasons, was named to eight All-America teams, and was the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player of the Sun Belt Championships in 2009 and 2010.[10][11] She was named to the Middle Tennessee Hall of Fame in 2020.[10]

Professional career

Clark was drafted with the 17th overall pick in the second round of the 2010 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars,[12] but did not make a roster that year or in 2011.

Besides playing in the WNBA, she during the off season played on Ramat Hasharon of the Israeli National League from 2010 to 2013 (and was awarded the Domestic Player of the Year Award and selected to the All-Israeli First team during her first year).[3] In the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons, she played for the Maccabi Ashdod, and was named the Player of the Year, Forward of the Year, and a First Team all-star.[3] Clark then played in Turkey followed by Poland for the next two years.[3] In 2018/19 and 2019/20, she played in France.[3]

In 2012, she signed with the Seattle Storm.[13] In 2019, she was named to the All-Defensive Second Team and in 2020 was chosen for the All-Defensive First Team.[3]

Clark in 2018

In 2018, Clark started every game of the Storm's WNBA Championship run. In Seattle's Western Conference Finals series against the Phoenix Mercury, Clark was the Storm's main choice to guard Diana Taurasi, and in the decisive Game 5, she also logged a double-double with 13 points and a team-high 13 rebounds.[14] In the Storm's championship-clinching win in the WNBA Finals against the Washington Mystics, Clark led the team in playing time, and added 15 points.[15]

In February 2021, Clark signed with the Washington Mystics, but was ruled out of playing during the 2021 WNBA season due to a Lisfranc injury received while playing in France.[16]

In December 2022, Clark signed with the Israeli champions Elitzur Ramla, until the end of the season. She went back to training under Shira Halyon, who trained her in the past in the EuroCup.

In February 2023, Clark signed with the Las Vegas Aces. On September 18, 2023, she won the WNBA Sixth Player of the Year Award.[17]

Career statistics

WNBA

Source[18]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader
† Denotes seasons in which Clark won a WNBA championship

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2012 Seattle 23010.3.547.450.7062.00.30.20.10.83.4
2013 Seattle 33015.3.453.390.7602.50.40.40.21.14.0
2014 Seattle 34°2216.5.448.246.6962.10.60.50.30.74.2
2015 Seattle 333123.1.544.353.7753.71.20.70.21.16.9
2016 Seattle 333227.6.484.387.8473.71.90.70.11.39.0
2017 Seattle 333328.3.525.328.7454.21.60.70.11.08.2
2018† Seattle 313026.2.480.392.8463.51.91.00.11.27.4
2019 Seattle 313028.4.481.481.8184.72.51.10.51.59.6
2020† Seattle 22°22°28.8.558.522.8004.22.71.50.50.910.0
2022 Washington 292926.4.464.303.9134.52.00.90.31.38.0
2023† Las Vegas 39122.5.444.386.8183.41.10.60.20.76.7
Career 10 years, 2 teams 34123023.1.490.385.7983.51.40.70.21.17.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2013 Seattle 2018.5.455.3331.0005.00.50.00.70.57.0
2016 Seattle 1128.0.333.0001.0002.03.00.00.01.08.0
2017 Seattle 1126.0.667–1.0005.00.01.01.01.06.0
2018† Seattle 8835.0.500.458.8755.92.60.50.30.68.5
2019 Seattle 2228.5.143.200.8573.51.02.00.52.54.5
2020† Seattle 6630.5.453.3481.0006.53.20.70.70.710.3
2022 Washington 2225.5.571.500.6673.53.01.50.50.56.0
Career 7 years, 2 teams 222030.1.457.381.9005.32.30.70.40.88.1

College

Source[19]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2005–06 Belmont 30 599 54.3 22.7 74.5 10.9 1.3 1.7 0.5 20.0
2006–07 Belmont 30 510 58.0 36.4 74.4 12.7 1.9 2.2 0.5 17.0
2007–08 Middle Tennessee redshirt/transfer
2008–09 Middle Tennessee 34 935 60.7 41.4 79.0 9.8 2.1 2.1 0.6 27.5
2009–10 Middle Tennessee 29 821 61.4 32.1 77.7 11.6 3.4 2.4 0.7 28.3
Career 123 2865 59.0 33.3 76.6 11.2 2.2 2.1 0.6 23.3

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Belmont has since dropped "Lady" from its women's team nicknames.
  2. ↑ Since the 2021–22 school year, first-time transfer students in Division I baseball, basketball, football, and men's ice hockey have been allowed to play immediately after transferring. This change placed those sports under the same rules that had long applied in all other Division I sports, as well as Divisions II and III.
  3. ↑ The only other player to have been a player of the year in two Division I conferences is Doug McDermott, who earned the honor in the Missouri Valley Conference and Big East Conference while at Creighton.

References

  1. ↑ "Basketball / Profile / Welcome to the club – Israel News". Haaretz. January 6, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Calm In The Storm". Fellowship of Christian Athletes. July 7, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Alysha Clark". jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  4. ↑ "2 Jewish stars helped power the Seattle Storm to a WNBA championship". October 7, 2020.
  5. ↑ "MJHS Alumni Clark drafted in the WNBA". Archived from the original on May 19, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Alysha Clark - Women's Basketball". Middle Tennessee State University Athletics.
  7. 1 2 3 "Alysha Clark College Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
  8. ↑ Powell, Jackie (October 12, 2020). "Don't Underestimate Israeli-American Basketball Star Alysha Clark". Hey Alma. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  9. ↑ "NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Records Through 2013–14" (PDF). NCAA. p. 15. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Alysha Clark (2020) - Hall of Fame". Middle Tennessee State University Athletics.
  11. ↑ "Alysha Clark's amazing journey". The City Paper. Nashville. Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Clark Shooting for Silver Stardom". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Clark evolves into star for Seattle Storm". ESPN.com. September 9, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  14. ↑ "SEA vs PHO". WNBA Stats. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  15. ↑ "SEA vs WAS". WNBA Stats. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  16. ↑ Diaz, Greydy (April 2, 2021). "Mystics announce that Alysha Clark had successful foot surgery". Bullets Forever. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Las Vegas Aces' Alysha Clark Named 2023 Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year". WNBA News. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Alysha Clark Career Statistics". wnba.com. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Women's Basketball Player stats". NCAA. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
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