Cierra Janay Dillard (born May 8, 1996) is an American-Senegalese professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who currently plays for

Alexandria Sporting Club Alexandria Sporting Club, also commonly known as Sporting Alexandria and Sporting between the locals, is an Egyptian sports club based in Alexandria, Egypt. Founded in 1890, the club is one of the oldest clubs in Egypt and Africa. The club was tak ...

College career

Dillard attended Gates Chili High School in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. She was named the All-Greater Rochester Girls Basketball Player of the Decade 2010–19. She later attended the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

for two years, before transferring to the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. At both universities, she played on the school's respective women's

teams. While playing at Buffalo, Dillard helped the Bulls to back-to-back

NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 Women's sports, women's college basketball teams from the NCAA Division I, Division I level of t ...

appearances in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2018.

Professional career

Dillard was selected by the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

in the second round of the

2019 WNBA draft The 2019 WNBA draft was the league's draft for the 2019 WNBA season. On March 19, the league announced the draft would be held on April 10 at Nike New York headquarters. The first round was televised on ESPN2, and the second and third rounds were ...

. The Lynx waived her in May but shortly later she was claimed of waivers by the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

. After appearing in one preseason game for the Sparks, she was once again waived on May 18. In 2022, Dillard guided

to the

2022 FIBA Africa Women's Champions Cup The 2022 FIBA Africa Women's Champions Cup will be the 26th season of the FIBA Africa Women's Clubs Champions Cup, the top tier basketball league for women's teams in Africa. The tournament began on December 9 and will end on December 17, 2022 ...

title, scoring a team-high 21 points in the finals. The following season, Sporting repeated as African champions and Dillard was named MVP of the 2023 Africa Women's Basketball League. Dillard averaged 23 points per game on 53.9% shooting from the field.

Personal

In 2023, Dillard became Senegalese by presidential decree. She joined the Senegal national team shortly after.

Career statistics

College

Source

References

External links

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Buffalo Bulls bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dillard, Cierra 1996 births Living people Senegalese women's basketball players American women's basketball players Buffalo Bulls women's basketball players Guards (basketball) Minnesota Lynx draft picks Basketball players from Rochester, New York UMass Minutewomen basketball players