Representation matters as BYU freshman Benally excels in Cougars' 7-0 start

PROVO — Every time Sydney Benally steps on the basketball court, she represents something bigger than herself.

But the freshman point guard at BYU isn't just cognizant of the Cougars' extensive, even worldwide, fanbase that travels pretty near anywhere they play.

Benally's representation goes deeper than her first season of Division I basketball at the flagship university of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because Benally has always represented something more in her basketball.

A proud member of the Navajo nation, Benally was a highly regarded prep recruit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she averaged 20.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.2 steals per game while leading Sandia to a second consecutive New Mexico 5A state championship as a senior.

Benally not only excelled in high school and in the local grassroots club scene, but also on the Indigenous circuit, where the 5-foot-9 point guard was a two-time champion and Most Valuable Player of the Native American Basketball Invitational, the largest all-Native American high school basketball tournament founded in 2003 to empower Indigenous youth through sport, education and community involvement.

So when BYU began to recruit the former Princeton commit, she couldn't help but pay attention to the Utah-based school located less than 400 miles from Navajo land.

Even a coaching change from Amber Whiting to former top assistant Lee Cummard during her senior year didn't sway Benally from playing close to the throngs of Indigenous basketball fans that flocked to her games even as a teenager.

"Knowing that it's easier for people to come watch me play, including my family, definitely helped," Benally said of her decision. "The community has supported me throughout all of my years, beyond the Navajo nation but also the other Indigenous reservations across the United States.'

And of course, the chance to play in the Big 12 helped.

"I'm excited to show that being Native American, you can also compete at this level," she added.

Benally was in her bag Thursday, when the starter dropped a career-high 18 points on 33.3% shooting including a pair of 3-pointers and 6-of-8 free throws in a 64-60 win over Virginia Tech (5-2) at the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam in St. Thomas.

Playing in a third straight game without last year's leading scorer Delaney Gibb, who continues to rehab a lower-leg injury, Benally has only gotten more comfortable in her role — and shown that Indigenous peoples can star on the basketball court, too.

BYU's fanbase rivals almost any in the country in its national, and occasionally worldwide, appeal. But Benally draws far-reaching crowds herself, Cummard noted.

"She's as big in the Native American basketball world as pretty much anybody," he said. "There's a pressure on her as it pertains to that.

"She's kind of the women's face of Native American basketball," Cummard added. "She's a big deal. Anything that Syd is involved with, you see a greater number of interactions because of that. She played at a high level in Albuquerque, and on the shoe circuits … But I don't think she gets enough credit for who she is in the landscape of the Native American community."

Cummard described a few games in Benally's brief career where entire sections of arenas would show up to watch her play, due to her standing in the community.

She also was allowed to embrace her community this past month, when BYU let her run out a flag of the Navajo nation before a football game celebrating Native American heritage month.

And while location and Big 12 basketball were perhaps the most important factors in Benally's recruitment, there was something about BYU itself that she couldn't ignore, either.

"On my visit," she said, "I felt like I was meant to be here. And the faith-based institution drew me here."

Of course, most important is basketball, where Benally is one of only a handful of Indigenous players in Division I college, the NBA, and WNBA.

Benally is leading the Cougars with 6.6 assists per game in one of just four 7-0 starts in program history. With Gibb — who was in a walking boot until this week with a lower-leg injury that Cummard describes as day-to-day — out since Nov. 19 at Montana, Benally has also progressively increased her scoring load, along with fellow freshman Olivia Hamlin (12.3 points per game) and senior Charleston transfer Lara Rohkohl (11.3 ppg).

"She just has this eye to see everyone on the court and make those passes," Rohkohl said of Benally. "I feel like me and her have this special bond on the court sometimes, where she can find me anywhere or I can set the perfect screen for her.

"I think the chemistry is there as a team."

In other words …

"She's a hooper; she likes the game of basketball," Cummard said. "But she's also a student of the game, and she's eager to learn."

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