FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (May 17, 2023) – Northern Arizona University women's basketball head coach
Loree Payne has announced the addition of Ceren Oturakci to the 2023-24 roster. Oturakci joins the Lumberjacks as a true freshman and is a 6-1 forward from Ankara, Turkey where she prepped at Hasan Ali Yucel High School.
Oturakci played for the Diba Sports Club from 2014-2020 where she was a starter for six years and a captain for three. She then moved on to the Cankaya Universities Sports Club, a youth development squad, from 2020 to 2023 where she was a two-year starter. Cankaya is a professional team where current WNBA player Tyasha Harris plays.
In 2018, Oturakci was a Guler Legacy Summer Camp 1v1 champion, and she was a Turkish Youth League finalist in 2020 and 2021.
This season for Cankaya, she averaged 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, shooting over 38 percent from three-point range. Prior to the end of the season, she scored in double figures and grabbed five or more rebounds in every game and shot 46 percent from field goal range, 50 percent from three, and 67 percent at the free throw line.
Oturakci completes the 2023-24 recruiting class for the Lumberjacks. She joins fellow true freshmen Reilly Clark (Catalina Foothills HS / Tucson, Ariz.), Allie Cummins (Carondelet HS / Concord, Calif.) and Ava Schmidt (Eastlake HS / Sammamish, Wash.), along with a pair of Montana State transfers in Grace Beasley and Leia Beattie.
