Patricia Anumgba’s college basketball career has been marked by mountains and valleys. She earned a scholarship to play at UMBC, but her freshman year was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Recruited but not offered financial aid by other NCAA Division I programs, she opted to go the junior college route and spend one season at CCBC Essex.
With the Knights, Anumgba was well-known for her insistence on working out as often as three times per day. She often trained on days after games when her teammates took time to heal their bodies with one expressed objective in mind.
“I had somewhere to get to,” she recalled. “I had to get back to D-1. So I had to work every day.”
That mindset served Anumgba well as she landed with Towson for the 2022-23 season. Now in her second year with the Tigers (8-6, 1-3 Coastal Athletic Association), the 5-foot-7 junior shooting guard has averaged 13.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.6 assists.
Anumgba has developed into a steady complement to redshirt senior shooting guard Kylie Kornegay-Lucas, who leads the team in points (14.6), rebounds (8.5), assists (4.3) and steals (2.6). But to coach Laura Harper, the duo’s worth is equal.
“I think when people look at our program, they look at Kylie Korengay-Lucas — as it should be from an outsider looking in,” she said. “But as far as the standard and the bar of academics, work, doing things the right way, being a leader, it’s not even close. We wouldn’t be here without Pat.”
Anumgba’s journey to Towson might not have unfolded if she had found a home at her first stop. Despite starring at Paint Branch in Montgomery County as an All-State first-team selection, she received only two scholarship offers, one of which came from UMBC.
In eight games with the Retrievers in 2020-21, Anumgba made three starts and averaged 4.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists before the team voted to cancel the remainder of the season because of the coronavirus pandemic. That decision disappointed Anumgba, who also chafed at the coaches’ emphasis that she sacrifice shooting 3-pointers for slashing to the hoop.
“I could get to the basket as well, but their playing style and what the coaches wanted didn’t really fit my game,” she said. “So I kind of lost rhythm with my shot, and I lost confidence as well, and I didn’t want to go through that for another season.”
After entering the transfer portal, coaches contacted Anumgba, but told her that they had no scholarships to offer. So she chose to spend the 2021-22 season at CCBC Essex, where coach Mike Seney sought to reinvigorate her offensive game.
“That was kind of one of my recruiting points in getting her. We wanted her to open up,” he said. “So Patty opened up her game and just became a really great three-level player who can score threes, midrange jumpers and layups, and I think that’s why she has continued to have success.”
Anumgba credited Seney with encouraging her to be the player she was in high school.
“He would tell me before games, ‘You need to have eight 3-point attempts or six 3-point attempts,’” she said. “He didn’t really care if they went in or not, but he wanted me to get back to looking for my shot and attacking and being aggressive and reminding myself that I am a scorer at all three levels. So it was a great confidence booster.”
After averaging 20.5 points while shooting 49.1% from the field and compiling 6.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 35 games, including 34 starts, with the Knights, Anumgba entered the transfer portal again and triggered the interest of Tigers associate head coach Christie Rogers, who had coached Anumgba at UMBC. Towson, which had lost point guard Aleah Nelson to Temple, beat out South Alabama and Northeastern for Anumgba’s services.
In her debut with the Tigers, Anumgba averaged 9.3 points on 42% shooting, 2.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals in 27 games, including 20 starts. She wonders if her contributions would have been greater if she had not had to recover from offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum in her right (shooting) shoulder and a bicep tendon subluxation that sidelined her for the team’s first six games.
Harper said the biggest difference in Anumgba this winter is her health.
“She doesn’t get tired,” she said. “She never wants me to take her out of the game. … Typically, I’ll take her out in the first quarter, and she’s just like, ‘I need you to trust that I can play with fouls.’ And I do to an extent. Her even echoing and voicing those kinds of things, she just has a different kind of leash because no one is going to outwork her ever. And she’s never going to give up on a possession.”
Anumgba’s energy is a by-product of her workouts. Although she sprinkles off days during the season, one of her shooting sessions entails making 400 mid-range and 3-point shots. Junior small forward Anasia Staton, who played with Anumgba at CCBC Essex and rejoined her at Towson, said her teammate’s workouts are legendary.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Whew, can I get a water break?’” Staton said with a laugh.
Harper and the team’s trainer occasionally lay down restrictions such as cutting her 200 3-pointers in half or taking jumpers or layups without much jumping. Anumgba said she obeys the restrictions “about 90%” of the time and that three training sessions per day are reserved for “a crazy day, if we don’t have a game or something.”
Staton described Anumgba as a perfectionist, which helps explain why she isn’t content with her numbers this winter.
“I really don’t feel like I’m having that much success,” she said. “I feel like I’m still trying to get into rhythm. Coach Harper told me my role this season and that they need me to score. So I’m just doing what the team needs and what the coaching staff is asking of me.”
Hampton at Towson
Friday, 7 p.m.
Stream: flosports.tv