Alana Beard

Alana Monique Beard ( born May 14, 1982 in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States) is a professional basketball player. She currently plays for the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association.

Career

College

Alana Beard played until 2004 for the women's basketball team at Duke University. In honor of their achievements for the women's basketball team their jersey number 20 has been banned from Duke University forever.

Women's National Basketball Association

Alana Beard was selected in the WNBA Draft in 2004 by the Washington Mystics at the overall second place. Beard has been one of their first WNBA season to key players of the Mystics. In her rookie season in 2004 led her to the failure of Chamique Holdsclaw, the Mystics almost alone in the playoffs, where the Mystics but already failed in the Conference Semifinals to the Connecticut Sun. Their first season was Beard already a playing time of 30.1 minutes per game. During this time they scored an average of 13.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists. In the 2005 season, their playing time increased to 33.8 minutes per game, thus they had already achieved an average of 14.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Your statistically best season they had in 2006. Though their playing time in the dropped to 31.3 minutes, they scored 19.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists. Beard was through these good performances at all responsible for ensuring that the Mystics managed again after two years made ​​it into the playoffs, but where they failed at the Sun as two years ago. In the 2007 season, they brought with 18.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3 assists a relatively good season. However they missed with the Mystics this season's playoffs just barely.

Beard was elected to her first four seasons all three times in the All-Star team, a time even in the starting lineup.

Internationally

At the World Cup in 2006, she won the bronze medal with the U.S. national basketball team.