Canada’s Emma Koabel becomes Kara Lawson’s first recruiting commitment at Duke

Kara Lawson has her first recruiting commitment as Duke’s new women’s basketball coach.

Emma Koabel, a 5-10 guard considered one of the best prospects in Canada, announced her commitment to the Blue Devils on Friday on her Instagram account. She becomes the first commitment for the recruiting Class of 2022.

Koabel, on Instagram, wrote. “Playing at Duke University has been a dream of mine since I was young.”

Koabel is a native of Port Colborne, Ontario, near Buffalo, N.Y., and plays at Niagara Prep. She averaged 14.2 points a game last season, carries a 4.0 grade-point average, and on her Niagara Prep bio page said “confident” is the one word she would use to describe herself.

Koabel was a member of Canada’s national team in the 2018 Junior NBA World Championships.

Lawson, a former Tennessee All-America who played in the WNBA, was named Duke coach in July after spending a season as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics.

Chip Alexander

The News & Observer

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In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.