Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Southeast guard brings talent from New Zealand

Monday, February 4, 2013
Southeast guard Jordan Hunter drives toward the basket during a game against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday at the Show Me Center. Photo by Alyssa Brewer

Jordan Hunter is the starting point guard for Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team. That's all most Southeast students know about her. As it turns out, Hunter, a junior, had to make a long journey to get to Cape Girardeau.

Hunter is a native of Papakura, New Zealand. Her homeland is located in the southern hemisphere, nearly 8,000 miles away.

"This is my first time overseas living," Hunter said. "Going somewhere I didn't know people, that's probably the biggest challenge. Networking and making new friends and stuff like that."

According to Hunter, there really is not a major difference from living in the United States and New Zealand for her.

"I guess the food's different," Hunter said. "And we drive on the other side of the road. It's pretty similar, there's not much of a difference."

Hunter first came to the United States to play basketball for Crowder Community College in Neosho, Mo. She spent two seasons playing for the junior college and earned third-team NJCAA All-America honors averaging 13.3 points, 5.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game during her sophomore season. Her play didn't go unnoticed as coach Ty Margenthaler recruited her to be part of his first recruiting class at Southeast.

"[Southeast] was a lot similar to my JUCO," Hunter said. "It was a small community type of thing, and I like Missouri. I didn't have many other options, but when I came over here [to Southeast] I just felt like this was the place I was going to choose."

Hunter is a member of New Zealand's women's national basketball team and made an appearance in the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament last summer. The team lost both of its games and failed to get past group play. Hunter saw four minutes of action in only one of the team's two losses but didn't expect much playing time anyway.

"I was one of their junior players that joined the team," Hunter said. "It was great to learn from the veterans on the team, and it was more like a learning experience for me."

Hunter is a member of the squad now but will have to go through tryouts again for the next tournament -- the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The team is also striving to make the 2016 Olympics, Hunter said.

Hunter has played a vital role for Southeast this season. She has helped the team to an 8-14 record, which means it already has one more win than last season when it finished 7-22.

"The first thing she did is that she came in as a great leader, and that really helped this basketball team," Margenthaler said. "I think her play's been very consistent. She's had a little bit of ups and downs, but that's natural with the transition to a new university, new system."

During a four-game streak from Jan. 16 to Jan. 28, Hunter has had more turnovers in each game than assists. The team lost each of these games. During that same streak she only hit double digits in points once with 10 in a loss to Eastern Illinois University on Jan. 26.

"We're going through a bit of a rough patch. But our team's still making a big change, we still have the potential, we just got to develop the culture of winning," Hunter said. "So, we're still in that slump, but we're getting there one step at a time."

Although she is currently going through a slump of her own, she has had her better days as well. During a two-week stretch in early January she was named the Ohio Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week. Hunter also nabbed the overall OVC Athlete of the Week for women's basketball on Jan. 8. During that week, she averaged 20 points per game in Southeast's two wins over Austin Peay and Murray State.

Hunter is currently averaging 10.0 points, 3.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds and has 27 steals this season. She also leads the team in minutes played averaging 32.4 minutes per game.

According to Margenthaler, international basketball has some differences in style of play, but that hasn't hampered Hunter's ability.

"The physicality is a little stronger over here," Margenthaler said. "I think they're a little more freelanced than we are. We're a little more structured. Basketball is basketball and terminology is terminology, so that's what helps her."

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