Sancho Lyttle

Sancho Lyttle (born September 20, 1983) is a Spanish professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Combining the WNBA and the European season, she has won six domestic leagues and four Euroleague titles with four teams in three countries. She was born in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was granted Spanish nationality in June 2010. With the Spanish basketball team she has won four medals between 2010 and 2017.[1]

Sancho Lyttle
No. 31 – Phoenix Mercury
PositionPower forward / Center
LeagueWNBA
Personal information
Born (1983-09-20) September 20, 1983
The Grenadines
NationalitySpanish
Listed height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight175 lb (79 kg)
Career information
College
WNBA draft2005 / Round: 1 / Pick: 5th overall
Selected by the Houston Comets
Playing career2005–2019
Career history
2005–2008Houston Comets
2006–2009CB Puig d'en Valls
2009–2017Atlanta Dream
2009–2011CB Avenida
2011–2012Ros Casares Valencia
2012–2015Galatasaray
2015–2019UMMC Ekaterinburg
2018–2019Phoenix Mercury
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com
Medals
Representing  Spain
World Championships
2014 Turkey
2010 Czech Republic
EuroBasket
2013 France
2017 Czech Republic

Early life

Sancho Lyttle was born to Evelyn Little and Ian Cain. Members of her family spell their surname 'Lyttle' or 'Little'. Sancho has a younger brother, Xavier Little. Sancho attended St. Vincent Girls' High School where she played net ball and ran various Track and Field events. She never played basketball until prompted to do so after her move to the United States. She and three other girls from her country were requested by her Junior College and current assistant coach for the University of Houston Women's team Wade Scott who offered to teach them how to play the game of basketball.

College career

Sancho Lyttle played collegiate basketball at Clarendon College before transferring to the University of Houston from 2003–2005 where she currently holds the record for single season rebound average (2004–2005), offensive rebounds (04-05) and most rebounds in a single season (04-05). She also holds the career record for highest rebounding average.

WNBA career

When the Houston Comets folded in 2008, she was selected first in the dispersal draft by the Atlanta Dream.

She currently plays the power forward position for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. Throughout her career, she has scored 1,505 points, collected 1,041 rebounds, and has 200 assists, 242 steals, and 96 blocks through six seasons. She was the fifth overall draft pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft out of Houston.

In 2010, she had career highs in points and rebounds with 27 and 20, respectively. She was hospitalized for a number of days in 2010 after being knocked unconscious for a little over a minute by an incidental elbow during a game. She recovered and played 13 days later.[2]

On February 1, 2018, Lyttle signed with the Phoenix Mercury after spending the previous 9 seasons with the Atlanta Dream.[3] However, her season ended early when she tore her ACL on June 30, 2018.[4] In September 2019, Little announced her retirement after 15 WNBA seasons.[5]

WNBA stats
Season Team GP MPG PPG RPG APG
2005 Houston Comets 33 13.9 4.2 3.8 0.5
2006 Houston Comets 29 13.1 3.7 3.9 0.3
2007 Houston Comets 31 16.3 5.9 5.3 1.0
2008 Houston Comets 27 18.1 8.2 6.2 0.9
2009 Atlanta Dream 34 27.4 13.0 7.5 1.5
2010 Atlanta Dream 32 29.1 12.8 9.92 2.2
2011 Atlanta Dream 22 26.2 10.0 6.3 2.1
2012 Atlanta Dream 34 31.6 14.0 7.6 2.5
2013 Atlanta Dream 6 30.0 14.3 8.5 2.5
2014 Atlanta Dream 34 31.3 12.2 9.0 2.4
2015 Atlanta Dream 24 30.0 10.3 8.3 2.2
2016 Atlanta Dream 19 30.1 7.6 7.8 1.8
2017[6] Atlanta Dream 29 28.3 6.4 7.1 1.6
2018 Phoenix Mercury 18 23.3 7.9 5.3 1.4
TOTAL[7] 372 24.9 9.2 6.8 1.6
Lyttle in 2014

Euroleague career

Simultaneously to her WNBA career, she has played in Spain[8][9], Turkey and Russia, winning one Euroleague and at least one domestic league playing for every club. She currently plays for Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg

Euroleague stats
Euroleague champion
Season Team GP MPP PPP RPP APP
2009-10 Halcón Avenida 15 30.5 17.6 10.8 1.6
2010-11 Halcón Avenida 16 31.1 13.9 9.8 1.3
2011-12 Ros Casares 17 26.8 12.8 7.4 2.4
2012-13 Galatasaray S.K. 17 25.6 11.6 7.2 1.3
2013-14 Galatasaray S.K. 14 28.4 13.6 8.3 1.8
2014-15 Galatasaray S.K. 13 30.5 11.1 9.1 1.9
2015-16 UMMC Ekaterinburg 17 23.8 7.8 7.6 1.9
2016-17 UMMC Ekaterinburg 13[10] 20.6 5.8 5.9 1.8
Total 122 27.1 11.7 8.2 1.7

National team

Lyttle played her first and only tournament with native Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2004, at the Caribbean championship.[11]

After her naturalization was granted in 2010,[12] she made her debut with the senior Spanish team in 2010, days after turning 27. Up to 2017, she had 45 caps with 15.6 PPG and 9.5 RPP, participating in two World Championships and three European Championships. After helping the team qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio in mid-June, she missed the Games after breaking her toe in mid-July playing for the Atlanta Dream[13][14]:

Awards and achievements
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See also

References
  1. "archive.fiba.com: Players". www.fiba.basketball. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  2. Lyttle rebounds from big blow
  3. "Mercury Signs All-Star Forward Sancho Lyttle". mercury.wnba.com. February 1, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  4. "Mercury Forward Sancho Lyttle Out For Season With Torn ACL". mercury.wnba.com. July 2, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  5. "Lyttle announces her retirement after 15 WNBA seasons". Fansided. September 16, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  6. "Stats - Atlanta Dream". Atlanta Dream. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  7. "Sancho Lyttle - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  8. Offseason 2008–09: Overseas Roster
  9. "Federación Española de Baloncesto - Competiciones FEB". competiciones.feb.es. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  10. "Sancho LYTTLE at the EuroLeague Women 2017 - FIBA.basketball". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  11. "St.Vincent and the Grenadines | 2004 CBC Championship for Women | ARCHIVE.FIBA.COM". www.fiba.basketball. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  12. "La selección española 'ficha' a Sancho Lyttle, una de las mejores jugadoras del mundo - MARCA.com". www.marca.com. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  13. Hill, Jordan. "Dream lose forward Sancho Lyttle for rest of regular season". ajc. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  14. "Duro golpe para España: Sancho Lyttle se lesiona en la WNBA no estará en los Juegos". Gigantes del Basket (in Spanish). July 17, 2016. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  15. "Moore named MVP of 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, headlines All-Star Five". FIBA.com. October 5, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
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