Katie-Rae Ebzery (born 8 January 1990) is an Australian former professional basketball player who played 15 seasons in the

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Baske ...

(WNBL). She was a three-time All-WNBL First Team member and a two-time Olympian with the

Australian Opals The Australian women's national basketball team is nicknamed the Opals, after the brightly coloured Opal, gemstone common to the country. From 1994 onwards, the Opals have been consistently competitive and successful having won nine medals at ...

Early life

Ebzery was born in Waratah, New South Wales. From a young age, she would watch her mum and cousins play basketball. She started playing socially at the age of five, and by the age of nine she was playing representative basketball for the Newcastle Hunters. She attended St Mary's High School in Newcastle.

Professional career

Ebzery debuted in the

(WNBL) in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

with the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

(AIS). The talented guard left the AIS after three seasons with 65 WNBL games to her name at just 18 years of age. After playing for the

Dandenong Rangers The Dandenong Rangers were an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in Dandenong, Melbourne, Victoria. The team was founded as the Dandenong Rangers, howeve ...

in the 2008–09 season, she stepped away from the WNBL for the 2009–10 season. In 2010, Ebzery joined the Sydney Uni Flames. In 2014–15, she passed 200 WNBL games and was named the Flames Club MVP after averaging 16.8 points per game, the sixth highest average in the league. She played her sixth season for the Flames in 2015–16 and was named to the

WNBL All-Star Five The All-WNBL Team is an annual Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) honour bestowed on the best performing players in the league following every WNBL season. From 1988 to 2018–19, the honour was known as the All-Star Five. As of 2020, it is ...

. For the 2016–17 season, Ebzery moved to Russia to play for

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

. Ebzery returned to the WNBL and the Sydney Uni Flames for the 2017–18 season. In June 2018, Ebzery signed a two-year contract with the Perth Lynx. In the 2019–20 season, she was named to the WNBL All-Star First Team. In June 2020, Ebzery re-signed with the Lynx. In the 2020 WNBL Hub season in Queensland, she was named to the All-WNBL First Team. She finished the regular season fourth (18.0) in scoring and ninth (3.6) in assists. In October 2021, Ebzery retired from the WNBL after 15 seasons and 304 games.

Off-season stints

Between 2008 and 2012, Ebzery played for the Newcastle Hunters in the

Waratah League The NBL1 East, formerly the Waratah League, is a semi-professional basketball league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2021, Basketball New South Wales and the National B ...

. In 2014, she played for the Hornsby Spiders and helped them win the Waratah League championship with a grand final MVP performance. In 2015, she played for the BA Centre of Excellence in the

SEABL The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was an Australian semi-professional basketball league. The league comprised both a men's and women's competition and was run by the country's governing body, Basketball Australia. The league wa ...

. In 2016, she had a short stint with the Hunters. In 2021, she played four games for the Hunters, who were crowned champions following the season's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

National team career

In 2007, Ebzery represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

at the FIBA Under-19 World Championship in Slovakia. In

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Ebzery won bronze with the Australian University Team at the

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

. She also won bronze with the Australian 3x3 team at the inaugural FIBA 3x3 World Championships in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. Ebzery made her

debut at the

2015 FIBA Oceania Championship The 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship for Men was the 22nd edition of the tournament. The tournament featured a two-game series between Australia and New Zealand. It also served as the qualifying tournament of FIBA Oceania for basketball at the ...

, where the Opals claimed gold. In 2016, she played for the Opals at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro, and later in the

Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

. In 2017, Ebzery played for the Opals at the FIBA Women's Asia Cup, where she helped them win silver in Division A. In 2018, Ebzery helped the Opals win gold at the Commonwealth Games and silver at the

FIBA World Cup The FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010 known as the FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball competition contested by the senior men's nat ...

. In 2019, Ebzery helped the Opals win bronze at the

FIBA Asia Cup The FIBA Asia Cup (formerly the FIBA Asia Championship and ABC Championship) is an international basketball tournament which takes place every four years between the men's national teams of Asia and Oceania. Through the 2015 edition, the tourn ...

. She later played in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament and the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. At the Tokyo Olympics in July and August 2021, Ebzery averaged 6.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in four games.

Personal life

Ebzery is the daughter of Helen and Robert. She has three siblings, brothers Andrew and Mathew, and sister Alison. Alison made her debut in the WNBL in 2019.

References

External links

* * * * *
Katie-Rae Ebzery WNBL profile at GameDay
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebzery, Katie-Rae 1990 births Living people Australian expatriate basketball people in Russia Australian Institute of Sport basketball (WNBL) players Australian women's basketball players Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Basketball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in basketball Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Dandenong Rangers Medalists at the 2011 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade Olympic basketball players of Australia Perth Lynx players Shooting guards Small forwards Sydney Uni Flames Universiade bronze medalists for Australia Universiade medalists in basketball Women's National Basketball League players Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales Sportswomen from New South Wales