Amanze Egekeze

Amanze Egekeze

Egekeze with Yokohama in 2018
No. 12 – Kataja
Position	Power forward
League	Korisliiga
Personal information
Born	(1995-12-03) December 3, 1995 (age 29) Lake in the Hills, IL
Nationality	Nigerian / American
Listed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Career information
High school	Huntley (Huntley, Illinois)
College	Belmont (2014–2018)
NBA draft	2018: undrafted
Playing career	2018–present
Career history
2018	Yokohama B-Corsairs
2019	Ryukyu Golden Kings
2019	Niigata Albirex BB
2019–2020	PAOK
2020–2021	BC Gries-Oberhoffen
2021–2022	Donar
2022–present	Kataja
Career highlights and awards
Dutch Cup winner (2022) Finnish Cup winner (2023) First-team All-OVC (2018)

Amanze Ikenna Egekeze (born December 3, 1995) is a Nigerian-American professional basketball player who plays for Kataja of the Korisliiga. He also played for the Nigerian national team.[1] He is the son of Gilbert and Lize Egekeze, who are natives of Nigeria. His brothers are Uchenna and, Kemdi and has one sister Ogechi. Uchenna plays basketball at Calvin University.[2]

Early life and college career

Egekeze played for Huntley High School, where he was the 2014 Northwest Herald Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Egekeze played on three Class 4A regional champions.[3]

Egekeze competed in college basketball for Belmont, where he scored 1,348 career points. As a senior, he was the second-leading scorer (16.8 per game) and rebounder (5.0 per game) for the Bruins. He was named to the First-team All-Ohio Valley Conference.[4][5]

Professional career

On July 13, 2018, Egekeze signed with the Yokohama B-Corsairs of the Japanese B.League.[6] During the 2018–19 season, he also played for the Ryukyu Golden Kings and the Niigata Albirex BB from the same league.[7]

On September 1, 2019, Egekeze signed with the Greek club PAOK.[8] The 2019–20 season was complicated for PAOK. .[9] Egekeze and PAOK also participated in the Champions League where they ended at the second to last position of the D group, composed of 8 teams, with 5 wins and 9 losses, thus, not qualifying for the next round.[10]

In June 2020, Egekeze signed with the French club BC Gries-Oberhoffen.[11] Egekeze and the BCGO participated in the Leaders Cup where they ended at the bottom of the D group, composed of 3 teams, with 1 win and 3 losses, thus, not qualifying for the next round.[12]

On June 30, 2021, Egekeze signed with Dutch club Donar of the BNXT League.[13] He helped Donar win the Dutch Cup.

On August 3, 2022, Egekeze signed a one-year contract with Kataja of the Korisliiga.[14] In his first season with Kataja, He averaged 13.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1 steal. He also won the Finnish Cup and beat Salon Vilpas to win a bronze medal in Korisliiga

National team career

In December 2020, Egekeze became a member of the Nigerian national basketball team, and played with the team in the qualifiers for AfroBasket 2021.[15]

Statistics

Egekeze as a member of the Yokohama B-Corsairs in 2018

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

College statistics

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2014–15	Belmont	33	23	20.0	.404	.338	.837	3.2	0.7	0.8	0.5	5.4
2015–16	Belmont	31	31	22.7	.539	.422	.768	3.4	0.7	0.4	0.4	9.0
2016–17	Belmont	30	29	27.2	.487	.384	.843	5.5	0.9	0.4	0.8	11.3
2017–18	Belmont	33	33	34.5	.505	.425	.802	6.2	0.9	0.6	0.2	16.8

Career statistics

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2018–19	Yokohama	15	15	33.6	.417	.280	.804	6.4	1.6	0.9	0.7	13.9
2018–19	Ryukyu	4	4	38.2	.429	.421	.714	7.2	1.8	1.0	0.2	12.2
2018–19	Niigata	2	2	31.5	.613	.467	.857	7.0	1.0	0.5	0.5	25.5
2019–20	PAOK	20	-	12.9	.635	.360	.727	2.1	0.5	0.1	0.1	3.8
2020–21	BCGO

References

1. BCGO (October 19, 2020). "#32 Amanze Egekeze". Retrieved October 19, 2020.
2. "A snap decision: How Huntley alum Amanze Egekeze landed on Nigeria's national basketball team". Shaw Local. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
3. Stevenson, Joe (June 12, 2018). "College basketball: Huntley grad Egekeze exploring opportunities in NBA, overseas". Northwest Herald. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
4. Boclair, David (June 13, 2018). "Belmont's Egekeze hopes to plot course to NBA". Nashville Post. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
5. Boclair, David (February 27, 2018). "Belmont puts three on All-OVC first team". Nashville Post. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
6. "Basketball: Huntley graduate Egekeze signs with Japanese team". Northwest Herald. July 14, 2018. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
7. "Amanze Egekeze – Player Profile". proballers.com. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
8. "Young Nigerian-American in Amanze Egekeze will continue his career in Greece with PAOK". eurohoops.net. September 19, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
9. "Panathinaikos crowned champion, Aris and PAOK stay up". ekathimerini.com. May 21, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
10. "2019–20 Basketball Champions League – Standings". championsleague.basketball. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
11. "BCGO : Egekeze, un Américain à Gries !". DNA (in French). June 17, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
12. "Leaders Cup Pro B 2021". lnb.fr (in French). Retrieved October 22, 2020.
13. Brink, Adriaan van den (30 June 2021). "Amanze Egekeze nieuwe forward voor Donar". Donar (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
14. "Amanze Egekeze tuo kokemusta ja kokoa Kataja Basketiin". KatajaBasket.fi (in Finnish). 2022-08-03. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
15. "A snap decision: How Huntley alum Amanze Egekeze landed on Nigeria's national basketball team". Shaw Local. Retrieved 4 July 2021.

External links

• Belmont Bruins bio