After a second-round selection, Stephanie Mavunga is headed to Indiana where she'll join a couple of familiar faces. Mavunga's sister-in-law Jeanette Pohlen-Mavunga plays guard for the Fever and Ohio State teammate Kelsey Mitchell was selected by Indiana with the second overall pick.
For Mavunga, playing basketball professionally is fulfilling a life-long dream.
“It’s every little kid’s dream," Mavunga said of the opportunity to play basketball professionally. "Everyone that starts playing basketball and all their work and hard work, and through the years, then kind of get to see like, ‘OK, we’ve played this long,’ and then this is like the last thing you get to do, play professionally."
Mavunga played just two seasons in Columbus after transferring from North Carolina following her sophomore year, but in those two seasons Mavunga was Ohio State's anchor in the post, leading the team in rebounding and averaging the second-most points per game, behind just Mitchell.
She is an efficient scorer, great in transition and a force on the boards. Mavunga had a career-high 26 points in the 2017-18 season opener against No. 10 Stanford to go along with her 17 points, and posted the first 20-20 game in Big Ten Tournament history, scoring 26 points and pulling down 21 rebounds in the semifinal win against Minnesota.
Mavunga was the second Buckeye taken in the WNBA Draft, following Mitchell.
