Alex Bentley

Alexandria Marie Bentley (born October 27, 1990) is an American-born Belarusian professional basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball at Pennsylvania State University. She represents the Belarus national team internationally.

Alex Bentley
No. 20 – Las Vegas Aces
PositionPoint guard / Shooting guard
LeagueWNBA
Personal information
Born (1990-10-27) October 27, 1990
Indianapolis, Indiana
NationalityAmerican / Belarusian
Listed height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Listed weight152 lb (69 kg)
Career information
High schoolBen Davis (Indianapolis, Indiana)
CollegePenn State (2009–2013)
WNBA draft2013 / Round: 2 / Pick: 13th overall
Selected by the Atlanta Dream
Playing career2013–present
Career history
2013Atlanta Dream
2014–2018Connecticut Sun
2014–2015Tarbes Gespe Bigorre
2015–2016Yakin Dogu
2016–2017Adana ASKİ SK
2017–2018Nadezhda Orenburg
2018–2019Atlanta Dream
2020–presentLas Vegas Aces
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com

Early life

She was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her parents are Jeff and Marie Wilson and she has one brother Jeff Wilson III and one sister Alana Bentley. Her biological father is Albert Bentley former NFL player for the Indianapolis Colts (1985 to 1991). She attended Indiana Fever games as a young girl, and later as an intern for the team.[1] In high school, she helped her team earn a 30-0 record, a state championship, and a No. 1 ranking in the USA Today Super 25 poll. She averaged 15.7 points, 2.6 assists, 2.2 steals, and 3.2 rebounds in her senior year at Ben Davis High School[2] Bentley was also named a Third Team Parade Magazine High School All-American.[3]

In the 2011-12 season, she earned All-Big Ten first team selection for the second time in her career, making her one of the nine players in school history with multiple first team accolades.[2]

College career

While at Penn State, Bentley led the Big Ten in steals.[4] Bentley majored in broadcast journalism and minored in sociology while at Penn State. She was the fourth player in Big Ten History and the second player in school history with 1,500 points, 500 assists, and 300 steals.[2] During the 2010-11 season Alex Bentley became the eleventh Lady Lion in school history to earn a first team all big ten selection from the coaches.[2] In Bentley's first Big Ten game against Nebraska during the 2011-2012 season she got a then career-high 8 steals. That was the most steals a Lady Lion had acquired in approximately ten years.[2]

During the 2010-11 season Bentley became the eleventh Lady Lion in school history to earn a first team all big ten selection from the coaches. She finished in the top fifteen of the big ten in scoring, assists, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, steals, and assist-to-turnover ratio.[2]

Penn State statistics

Source[5]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2009-10 Penn State 31 365 44.5% 31.3% 60.0% 2.7 4.0 1.6 0.3 11.8
2010-11 Penn State 35 505 44.6% 34.9% 79.8% 2.7 5.0 2.0 0.3 14.4
2011-12 Penn State 33 465 42.3% 30.2% 68.4% 2.7 4.7 3.0 0.2 14.1
2012-13 Penn State 32 451 40.9% 28.1% 81.5% 3.4 3.5 3.4 0.3 14.1
Career 142 1786 56.7% 0.0% 64.3% 5.6 1.2 0.9 0.9 12.6

Professional career

WNBA

Bentley was selected with the 13th overall pick in the second round of the 2013 WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream.[2] In her rookie regular season she played in 34 games and started 10 of them. She averaged 22 minutes, 1.4 rebounds, 2.8 assist, and 8.3 points per game in her first regular season as a reserve for the Dream. The Dream were second in the Eastern Conference and advanced all the way to the 2013 WNBA Finals but were swept by the Minnesota Lynx. Bentley averaged 17.5 minutes, 5.8 points, 2.0 assists and 1.8 rebounds per game in her rookie postseason.[6] In 2014, Bentley was acquired by the Connecticut Sun in a three-team trade, which sent Matee Ajavon and the Washington Mystics' 2014 second round draft pick to the Dream, as well as Kara Lawson and the Dream's 2014 third round draft pick to the Mystics.[7] In her first season with the Sun, Bentley became the team's starting point guard. She finished the season averaging 12.2 points per game and a career-high 3.7 assists per game.

In 2015, Bentley was moved to the shooting guard position in the Sun's starting lineup with the arrival of Jasmine Thomas. During the 2015 season, Bentley was voted into the 2015 WNBA All-Star Game, making it her first all-star appearance, and averaged a career-high 14.7 points per game by the end of the season.[8] Also during the season, she scored a career-high 31 points in a win against the Washington Mystics.[9] In 2016, Bentley started in all 34 games for the first time in her career, averaging 12.9 points per game. In a triple overtime loss to the Washington Mystics, Bentley tied her career-high of 31 points in 48 minutes of play.[10]

In 2017, Bentley re-signed with the Sun in free agency once her rookie contract expired.[11] During the 2017 season, Bentley played mostly from the bench, starting in 9 of 31 games and averaging 8.4 ppg. The Sun finished with a 21-13 record as the number four seed in the league, making it the first time since 2012 making the playoffs. They received a bye to the second round elimination game, where they were defeated 88-83 by the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury.

In 2018, Bentley was traded to the Atlanta Dream in July.[12]

Overseas

In the 2014-15 WNBA off-season, Bentley played in France for Tarbes Gespe Bigorre.[13] In the 2015-16 WNBA off-season, Bentley played in Turkey for Yakin Dogu.[14] In September 2016, Bentley signed with Adana ASKI SK of the Turkish League for the 2016-17 WNBA off-season.[15] In 2017, Bentley signed with Nadezhda Orenburg of the Russian League for the 2017-18 WNBA off-season.[16]

WNBA statistics
Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career high ° League leader

Regular season
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2013 Atlanta 341022.1.398.329.7111.42.81.00.01.18.3
2014 Connecticut 343025.6.433.323.7551.73.71.20.02.012.2
2015 Connecticut 252530.0.409.336.8302.02.01.90.21.114.7
2016 Connecticut 343428.8.385.286.7851.92.50.80.01.412.9
2017 Connecticut 31923.7.380.278.8091.92.90.80.10.88.4
Career 5 years, 1 team 15810825.9.402.309.7821.72.81.20.11.311.1

Playoffs
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2013 Atlanta 8017.6.279.190.8891.62.01.10.20.85.8
2017 Connecticut 1023.8.500.000.5001.02.01.00.00.05.0
Career 2 years, 2 teams 9018.2.292.182.8181.62.01.10.20.85.7

Awards and honors

References
  1. Sean Hans, WNBA.com (2013-07-11). "Alex Bentley: Living the Dream". WNBA.com. Retrieved 2013-11-20.
  2. "Penn State University Alex Bentley Player Page". Archived from the original on 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  3. "WNBA Prospect Profile: Alex Bentley". 2013 WNBA Enterprises, LLC. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  4. "WNBA Prospect Profile". 2013 WNBA Enterprises, LLC. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  5. "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
  6. "WNBA Playerfile". 2013 WNBA Enterprises, LLC. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
  7. The Alex Bentley trade: Any gains for Atlanta?
  8. "Box Score". WNBA.com. July 25, 2015. Retrieved 26 Jul 2015.
  9. Alex Bentley Breaks Out Of Scoring Slump
  10. Alex Bentley goes for 31 points in loss to the Mystics
  11. 2017 WNBA free agency: Sun bring back Alex Bentley
  12. "Dream Trade Layshia Clarendon, Draft Pick to Sun For Alex Bentley". dream.wnba.com. WNBA. July 9, 2018. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  13. Game Center All Results All Leagues All Standings All Teams All Players Player profile Gamecenter Player Profile
  14. Alex Bentley
  15. Adana ASKİ sign American guard Alex Bentley. #KBL #Turkey
  16. WNBA Players Playing Overseas
  17. "Frances Pomeroy Naismith". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 30 Jun 2014.
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