Taeler Deer Lands Professional Contract

“Taeler has solidified her place in the Texas State women’s basketball history books,” Texas State women’s basketball head coach Zenarae Antoine said.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Former Texas State women’s basketball standout Taeler Deer has announced that she signed a contract with Kouvottaret, a team based out of Kouvola, Finland, to continue her basketball career in the professional ranks.

Kouvottaret finished seventh in the 10-team league in the top Finnish professional league, Korisliiga, with a record of 9-18 during the 2017-18 campaign. The 2018-19 season will start at the end of September and run through the month of March.

“Taeler has solidified her place in the Texas State women’s basketball history books,” Texas State women’s basketball head coach Zenarae Antoine said. “It has not always been an easy path for Taeler but with the support from her family and her perseverance, she is able to continue to live out a childhood dream.”

Deer, the 2017-18 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, became the fifth player under coach Antoine and 16th player in Bobcat women’s basketball history to score 1,000 career points.

The Houston native was also crowned the 2017-18 Sun Belt Conference Tournament Most Outstanding Player after scoring 63 points in three contests and leading Texas State to a runner-up finish and an automatic bid into the 2018 Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

Twice named Sun Belt Conference Student-Athlete of the Week, Deer collected 2017-18 Sun Belt Conference First Team honors after being named to the third team in 2016-17. In the women’s basketball record books, Deer ranks second in career assists (429), fourth in career steals (187), seventh in career made 3-point field goals (130) and ninth in career points (1,386). She also holds the school record for single-season assists (213) and single-game assists (14).

“My time at Texas State has prepared me for this moment in so many ways,” Deer said. “The coaching staff knew that I wanted to continue playing so they made everything more challenging for me. In summer workouts I was held to a higher standard than my teammates forcing me to push myself even harder. I was in the gym with either coach Paige [Love] or coach [Chandra] Dorsey on my own four days a week during the season. The coaching staff made me mentally tough to handle all situations that were thrown my way. Nothing was made easy for me because they knew what type of player I was and that I had a dream to play professionally. It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it in the end.”

Deer joins former Texas State great Ashley Ezeh (2010-14) in the professional basketball ranks. Ezeh recently completed her first season with ASAC Comunicaciones Adba Aviles in Spain. She has also spent time professionally in Denmark and Argentina.