RYAN Petrik knew that Ifunanya Ibekwe was a gifted player but even he has been blown away by the remarkable athletic tools she brings to the Rockingham Flames and the coach is excited to see her at 100 per cent in the 2016 Women's SBL playoffs.

As an assistant coach with the Perth Lynx, Petrik saw firsthand that Ibekwe was a supremely talented player when she was with the South East Queensland Stars, but while there she was playing as a big and wasn’t fully able to show her athletic gifts.

Now despite a delayed start to her SBL career with the Flames, Ibekwe has been unleashed over the past seven games and playing in the three spot she has shown how well she can get up and down the floor with remarkable speed and power, while being able to rebound, score and pass.

But when weighing up adding Ibekwe to his squad that had won the last two championships and still included Sami Whitcomb and Darcee Garbin, Petrik had to be sure it wouldn’t unsettle the group's chemistry.

Not only were Whitcomb and Garbin on board, they encouraged the move and with Ibekwe wanting to come to win and enjoy her time with the Flames rather than worrying about her individual stats, it was a win-win for all involved.

While it did take until May 28 when Ibekwe made her first appearance for Rockingham, Petrik was always confident of her fitting in.

"The beauty of Ify is that she actually chased us, not the other way around. Her and Sami are actually really good mates from Europe and Ify got hold of Sam to tell her she wanted to come," Petrik said.

"Sam, myself and Darcee talked about it and both of them couldn't believe it might happen, and then we had to sit on it for two months so the rest of the league wouldn't know she was available until it was official.

"She came knowing that it wasn’t for stats or money, but to try and win again with Sam and Darcee, hence them all getting along has never been an issue."

Petrik always knew that Ibekwe would be able to add plenty for the Flames once she arrived, but given he now sees her as a combination of Whitcomb, Garbin and Jacinta Bourne, it's fair to say even he has been blown away with her remarkable athleticism and ability to do so much on the floor.

Following the WNBL season with SEQ, Ibekwe went back to play at Girona in Spain where she injured a calf on April 3 and remained there to get that right. That delayed her arrival and Petrik still believes she has another gear to go up once her calf is 100 per cent healthy again.

"She's unreal. Obviously we've had Cannon and Whitcomb, and she is absolutely in that category, she is freakishly good hence why she was a WNBA draft pick. The problem is on our team is she's never going to put up the video game type numbers because she doesn’t have to," he said.

"She is too interested in winning and willing to sacrifice numbers to get wins, the same with Whitcomb. That's the only reason they're here. The scary thing about her is that she's actually a wing.

"Shane Heal had her playing at SEQ as a big because that's what he needed, but we've got her on a wing and she destroys wings athletically.

"The best way to describe her in relation to our team, is that she has a very rough combination of Jacinta Bourne's athleticism, Darcee Garbin's height and Sam Whitcomb's talent. She has a bit of those three girls all merged into one.

"She is still coming back from injury too and is only at about 80 per cent having not played basketball for three months. We feel that by finals time she should be back to her best."

Not only is there no other player in the SBL like Ibekwe, but there's also no one with her athletic gifts that springs to mind in the WNBL who can do everything she does at her size where she is tall and long enough to play as a big, but dynamic enough to play as a guard and anything in between.

After seeing her play as a big in the WNBL last season, Petrik has been excited to use her in a role where she can fully display her gifts and he now hopes it could be just the addition to see the Flames go all the way for a championship three-peat.

"As a big she was athletic but I can't think of a wing at WNBL level with her athleticism. Rebecca Allen played alongside her at SEQ might be the one but off the top of my head I can't think of another wing at the next level with her athleticism," Petrik said.

"The other thing is defensively where as good as she is offensively, she can guard two through five. She gets a lot of steals and deflections, she can switch anything she wants and she is the prototype WNBA player which is why she was drafted."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin