TCU junior Amy Okonkwo has been a major factor in the TCU women’s basketball team’s bounce-back stretch to begin Big 12 play in 2018. 

The California native is leading the team in scoring with 16.8 points per game, despite not starting a game this season. Head coach Raegan Pebley said Okonkwo’s willingness to come off the bench sets her apart from others.

“It takes a special person to be able to do that,” Pebley said. “To really have that attitude of ‘whatever you need, I’ll do it.’”

The junior is scoring her 16.8 points per game in just 20.5 minutes, an incredibly efficient mark for any scorer.

She scored her season-high 31 points against Hampton in 19 minutes, missing just three shots on 14 attempts.

Pebley said this efficiency also translates to her life off the court.

“Everything about Amy is efficient,” she said. “Her life off the floor, her practice habits, her weight room habits– everything about her is efficient.”

Along with her efficient scoring, Okonkwo also represents the direction many post players are trending toward in basketball, which is the ability to distance themselves from the post.

She leads the team in three-point percentage (.433) and made the game-winning three-pointer against West Virginia in overtime last Saturday.

“[Okonkwo] is an example of a positionless player that has a lot of interchangeable parts so that I can move her in a lot of ways,” Pebley said.

Okonkwo’s consistent scoring may play a factor in the remaining 12 conference games scheduled before the postseason conference tournament begins March 2.