Tara Clement
Height: 167cm
Born: February 22, 1999
Junior Association: Taranaki
High School: Opunake high School.
Previous NBL Clubs: Taranaki Thunder (2016-19)
Played on the Opunake High School team that won the 2016 ‘A’ Secondary Schools National Championship – named MVP at that tournament.
Played for the Taranaki Thunder team that finished runners-up to Canterbury Wildcats in the WBC 2017 Grand Final.
Graduated from Otago University in 2020 with a Health Science Degree.
Currently working as a Teacher Aid at Bayfield High School in Dunedin.
Tara Clement
Zoe Richards
Height: 188cm
Born: October 4, 1997
Junior Association: Basketball Otago
High School: St Hilda’s Collegiate, Dunedin
Previous NBL Clubs: Otago Gold Rush (2014 and 2018-20)
Debuted for the Tall Ferns on the team that finished runners-up at the 2019 William Jones Cup.
Following high school Richards spent a season (2016-17) at Gillette College playing alongside twin sister Brittany. She then played three seasons at Eckerd College helping the Tritons win the Sunshine State Conference title in 2020 – her senior year.
Played all 91 games for the Tritons in her three years on the team amassing 982 points and 430 rebounds.
She averaged 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds for Otago Goldrush in the 2019 WBC .
Played for the Gold Rush team that won the 2018 WBC title.
Played in the Tall Ferns Showcase Game in August.
Zoe Richards
Aleisha Ruske
Height: 168cm
Born: June 10, 1997
Junior Association: Otago
High School: St Hilda’s Collegiate, Dunedin
Previous NBL Clubs: Otago Gold Rush (2013 – 2020)
Has played seven seasons for the Gold Rush being a member of the WBC title winning teams in both 2015 and 2018.
Played for the NZ U18 Team in 2014.
Top scored (18 points) for Ajax in the club’s 2020 Dunedin Basketball Championship win against South Pac Magic.
Aleisha Ruske
Lisa Wallbutton
Height: 183cm
Born: January 14, 1986
Junior Association: North Harbour
High School: Westlake Girls’ High School
Previous NBL Clubs: Harbour Breeze (2002-05) and Auckland (2006)
The current Tall Ferns Manager had a distinguished playing career in the black singlet being one of just a handful of players to play over 100 games for the senior national team.
She was a key player at the 2008 Olympics averaging 10 points and 5 rebounds per game. Two years earlier she had played on the silver medal winning team at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
She played for the Christchurch Sirens in their only season in the Australian WNBL in 2008. Wallbutton then played a season in Belgium before enjoying a further six seasons in the WNBL with Adelaide, Bendigo and Perth.
Lisa Wallbutton