Near the end of the first half, the masked wonder picked off a pass by Tennessee State’s Sanaa’ St. Andre and turned it into a fast break layup.
Just 66 seconds later, she picked off another pass by the Tigers’ Krystal Haddock.
By the time Tennessee State left UD Arena on Sunday following a 76-58 loss, Tigers’ players likely had a few questions, one being:
“Who was the masked woman?”
In their group chats, UD coach Tamika Williams-Jeter said they refer to her as “Catwoman.”
“She kind of looks like Eartha Kitt right now,” Williams-Jeter said in reference to the actress/singer who played Batman’s alluring nemesis in the TV series.
In everyday life, the Flyers masked wonder is junior guard Nayo Lear.
She’s the UD women’s version of Zed Key, the Dayton men’s player who also wears a black protective mask to guard his nose. His was broken in a pickup game before the season began.
Lear’s injury came in the Delaware State game on Nov. 8.
“I got elbowed in the nose,” she said. “It’s not broken. It’s just real sensitive. It’s probably a bone bruise so I’m wearing this for protection.”
Williams-Jeter said the blow also caught Lear in the forehead, but that it wasn’t a concussion.
“It’s not like the old days when players like Rebecca Lobo and Maya Moore and everyone wore the same old mask, where it fit off your face and you couldn’t really see,” Williams-Jeter said.
“Now they laser your face and get specific measurements and they overnight the mask to you for the next day.”
UD was playing at No. 16 Duke the next game and Williams-Jeter said the company that made the mask happened to be in Durham, N.C., so Lear’s fitted protection — complete with her No. 1 jersey and a UD logo embossed on it — was delivered right to the team’s hotel there.
Lear then came off the bench to hit 4 of 5 shots against the Blue Devils in the 84-49 loss.
Although the 5-foot-10 Lear is slightly built, she’s one of the toughest players — men or women — to wear a Flyers hoops jersey this season.
She left the locker room on Sunday — following her seven points, two steals, two assists effort — carrying an ice bag.
“For my hip,” she explained
“Because of that mid-air collision?” she was asked.
“No, it’s for another deal,” she shrugged.
And before the season began, she said she again endured an IV infusion of iron that took a couple of hours.
As a sixth grader in South Holland, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago, she began having issues with fatigue. By freshman year she said she was diagnosed as having “low iron.”
Anemia causes the heart to work harder to make up for the lack of red blood cells or hemoglobin. Along with fatigue, a person can have shortness of breath, lightheadedness and headaches.
Lear got several iron infusions, took iron pills and changed her diet. Sunday, she said that included spinach.
“My mom used to make it for me,” she said. “I like spinach.”
So did Popeye and he ended up with some super powers himself.
Memorable debut
While she was a three-year starter at Thornwood High and then spent a season at nearby Example Sports Academy, a prep school for girls, some side effects from her “low iron” battle temporarily derailed her hoops and classroom productions and some of the big schools showing interest in her – she mentioned Illinois, Oklahoma, Virginia, St. John’s – backed away.
Williams-Jeter had just taken over the Flyers program – whose roster was depleted of players due to graduation or transfers following the coaching change – and when she saw Lear in a tournament in Columbus, she offered her a scholarship.
In her first game as a Flyer, Lear came off the bench at Providence, played 30 minutes and scored 20 points.
As Providence comes to UD Arena on Thursday night to play the Flyers, that college debut remains Lear’s career-high.
She’s had other memorable games, but for her first two years here she often had to play out of position — as the point guard — and she sometimes was plagued by turnovers.
“To be fair, we didn’t really have anybody on the roster to teach her that position,” Williams-Jeter said.
This season the Flyers have considerable depth and it’s allowed Lear to move to the wing, where defenders often find she can be difficult to stay with when she makes a move. But it’s also made for lots of competition for playing time and she comes off the bench.
“I believe everybody on the team has a role and I just want to bring energy when I come into the game,” she said.
Williams-Jeter said: “On defense she can be a monster. She’s gritty and she can get downhill. She engages people and can steal the ball and block a shot.”
One of the team’s four captains, she’s just as valuable off the court, said Williams-Jeter:
“What I love about her is that no one will ever sway her. She’s part of the team, but she holds on to what she thinks. That’s what I love about her.
“Once we got through a couple of bad habits from last year, she’s really turned the corner. She’s just a great kid.”
Cowboy hats?
Another Tennessee State question Sunday may have been:
“What’s going on here with all the red cowboy hats?”
It was Country Music Day at UD. Next week the Flyers take part in the Music City Classic in Nashville. They’ll meet Maryland Eastern Shore on Nov. 25 and South Dakota on Nov. 26.
The first 150 people through the door Sunday got light-up red cowboy hats.
“People were fighting over those hats,” Williams-Jeter said with a laugh. “They have three different light settings and everybody wanted one. It ended up being a great marketing idea.”
The country music tribute went beyond the Nashville trip though, Williams-Jeter said:
“Last year, me and Ivy (Wolf) had Country Music Mondays. We like country music. My dad was a D.J., so I listen to a little bit of everything.
“Now we do Country Music Fridays.”
Pretending to hold a microphone, Williams-Jeter said: “I’ll be singing it and Ivy will be boppin’. We posted it on social media and people loved it.”
The music must have inspired Wolf on Sunday. She finished with a game-high 23 points on 6-for-9 shooting from three-point range. Rikki Harris added 13 points and six assists and Arianna Smith had 10 rebounds and nine points.
Lear — the only Flyer who played substantial minutes Sunday and had no turnovers — left the locker room after the game with that ice bag, a smile, and a red cowboy hat perched atop her head.
One thing was missing — just like when Batman would go back to being Bruce Wayne and Catwoman became Selina Kyle — the mask was nowhere to be seen.
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