Albanian basketball player Astera Tuhina part of the US team of Palouse

Astera Tuhina with Kosovo's T-shirt

 After the brilliant experience in Spain, Astera Tuhina has taken an even bigger step in her basketball career.

The head coach of the Washington State Cougars women's team, Kamie Ethridge has announced the transfer of Tuhina.

The 188 cm tall basketball player has joined the US women's team "Palouse" until she will be officially part of them from the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

Tuhina managed to catch the eye of the Washington State Cougars with her appearances at the European Championship for the Small States 2021 in Cyprus and helped Kosovo win the bronze medal in this event.

"I'm excited to announce another player into our 2022 recruiting class, Astera Tuhina," Ethridge said. Asteras father, Astrit Tuhina, has been an integral part of the growth of youth basketball in Kosovo. As a child, she developed instincts that could not be learned. She chose to leave her homeland at the age of 13 to pursue better basketball opportunities in Spain. Astera has the special qualities we want in our program. She has passion, perseverance, toughness and a relentless effort to do whatever it takes for her team to succeed. She has a follow-up mentality, however, she is a talented attacking player. She can shoot for threes and is very creative in her moves towards the basket. The energy with which Astera plays is thrilling and our fans will love her way of playing. We are excited to have won the trust of Astera and her family. It will be a great reinforcement for our Coug family."

Furthermore, Tuhina was also a member of the Kosovo U-20 Representative at the FIBA U-20 event for "Women's European Challengers 2021" in Skopje. The basketball player 'exploded' at the event held in North Macedonia, as she averaged 7.7 points, 7.3 assists, and 6.3 rebounds in three games. Tuhina provided six or more assists in all three games. She scored 10 personal points and provided nine assists in a win over Romania, while also scoring ten points against Slovakia.

At just 16 years old, Tuhina made her debut in the Spanish Basketball Elite League with Deportivo Promete. Tuhina was their youngest player on the list but nevertheless managed to penetrate successfully into the best women’s basketball league in Spain.

Tuhina becomes the fourth transfer to Washington State, as she is joined by Krya Gardner, Lauren Glazier and Kaia Woods.