Filipina Vanessa De Jesus impresses in Duke debut

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Filipina Vanessa De Jesus showed the whole Duke University Blue Devils women squad that she was worth the recruitment after showing flashes of her offensive prowess in their 94-64 victory against Longwood to open their 2020-2021 ACC campaign.

The five-foot-eight guard negated first-time jitters and immediately let her presence felt on the hardwood after scoring 13 points on 4-out-of-6 shooting from the field.

On top of her stellar shooting performance, the 18-year-old teen sensation also contributed four assists, three rebounds, and one blocked shot in 30 minutes of playing time.

De Jesus, who was an All-CIF Open Division 1st team, the Gold Coast League MVP, and an All-CIF Southern Section Co-Player of the Year in 2019, made it known to coach Kara Lawson how valuable she is and marked the start of a promising NCAA career for the Filipina.

“It was great to just finally get out there with the team and show what we’ve all been working at! It’s always been a dream of mine to play college basketball, and now the moment is finally here, I’m just so grateful especially with everything that is going on today,” said De Jesus.

After a solid opening game, De Jesus and the Blue Devils will return to action on Monday at 3 AM, (Manila time) against Western Carolina.