Tera Reed is having an outstanding freshman year at Virginia Commonwealth University where she has started all but one of the 27 games played by the Rams this season.

During those games she has scored in double figures on no fewer than 20 occasions and recently posted a career high 27 points against Duquesne University.

We caught up with Tera soon after that outstanding performance and began by asking her if she was enjoying the success she is having in the early stages of her college career.

“Definitely. Coming in as a freshman I didn’t expect to be doing this well. But I have just been working out and I’ve been doing well.”

With a very young team VCU have been struggling this season and currently have a 7-20 record. With no seniors a lot of responsibility has fallen on the seven freshmen on the team.

“We have two juniors so they push us and tell us what to do and what the coaches expect of us but a lot of the time it is pretty evened out. We all take roles and when someone is down we pick them up.

 “The coaching staff hold us to a high standard but they do understand that it is difficult because we don’t have anyone to look up to but they don’t lower their standards and they hold us accountable. They keep reminding us of the process and the teams we go up against have older players on their team.”

Some of those older opponents are tasked with keeping a close eye on Reed as she is the leading scorer for the Rams averaging 13.9 points per game – an average good enough to place her in the top twenty scorers in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

“Sometimes they have box and one’s and stuff like that which makes it a lot more difficult,” said Tera.

Despite the team’s losing record this season Tera and the team are avoiding becoming too frustrated.

“Having had six seniors graduate last year we know we are young but understand how good we can become.

“The coaching staff push us very hard, they don’t say we need to wait our time. We played the top two teams in our conference recently and were within 10 points in both games so its just reminding us that we are right there. Just little things, you know there are a lot of new stuff we are experiencing in the game and when it comes to close games at the end we are just learning how to handle that.”

Virginia Commonwealth Head Coach Beth O’Boyle is in no doubt about the impact Reed has had in her first season.

“Tera is having an outstanding freshman year at VCU. She has had an immediate impact on our programme and I really enjoy coaching her. Tera is a versatile scorer who can take defenders off the bounce and finish at the rim, can score from the 3-point line and has a great mid-range game. In addition, Tera stuffs the stats sheet from the defensive endto with rebounds and steals,” said O’Boyle.

Tera is on pace to become the first freshman to lead VCU in scoring since 2005-06. She would also become just the seventh Ram to accomplish the feat in programme history. Despite that likely accomplishment she knows she still has plenty to work on.

“I constantly practice my pull up jump shot because that has been working well for me in games. I’m also working on improving my ball handling. Not necessarily for the purpose of in the game, but just getting confident with the ball so if I have to dribble in the full court I can. Those are the main things right now.”

Tera left Westlake Girls as a 15-year old and spent her last two high school years in the States studying and playing at Life Centre Academy in New Jersey and believes that experience has contributed to her success.

“It gets you prepared with the pace and how the game goes over here. Back home it is a lot slower and fundamentally played with pass and cut and read and react. Over here it is very different. Very individual play and look out for yourself and create for yourself in what you do.”

She also noticed the greater athleticism and physicality in the high school game in America.

“Everything, the physicality the pace. It’s very different. Two years have helped getting me prepared.”

Tera is now well into established routines but initially found it tough going.

“Combining the basketball workload and study was a big one for me especially when we were travelling early in the season. The whole month of December we were on the road and that was also when final exams were on. So studying on the road but also preparing for games was hard.”

Tera will enjoy some time off once the season concludes.

“We get a month off in May, which is when I will come home. Then I’ll come back for the summer sessions for both school and training.”

The good news for Harbour fans is that Tera is hoping to make an appearance or two for Harbour Breeze during her time back in Auckland.

“I’m not sure on the exact dates but hopefully I will be home for one of the tournaments.”

Tera appeared for the Breeze and a number of Harbour age group teams before her college career began. She credits mum Justine with being the biggest influence on her career to date but is thankful for the help she received from numerous coaches during her junior days.

 “I had lots of coaches helping me when I was young but Dan Mandic and Dave Heli were particularly influential.”

You can’t end a chat with someone living 14,000 kilometers away without asking them what they are missing about New Zealand.

“Family of course but mum visited last month which was great. I miss certain food and drink like Ribena, Milo, Snickers and UP&GO.”

Back at college in Richmond, Virginia, Tera certainly has a career that is on the up and going.