WBB Gonzaga Transfers: Ines Bettencourt

Ines is clearly choosing the better dawg: Gonzaga Bulldog

In last Thursdy’s article, I posted about the first of four incoming transfers that Coach Fortier and the Bulldogs will be introducing this coming fall. As a reminder, here are the four:

• G — Tayla Dalton — St. Mary’s
• G — Ines Bettencourt — UConn
• G — Vera Gunaydin — South Georgia Tech (JuCo)
• F — McKynnlie Delan — Minnesota

Today, we’re going to be covering the inter-conference transferee, Ines Bettencourt.

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As UConn’s first ever player from Portugal, Ines Bettencourt has an even more interesting background that lead to enrollment. Following star guard Paige Bucker’s knee injury in early August 2022, Geno Auriemma tapped that prestige to flipped Ines from her original commitment to Northwest Florida Raiders (remember that OldZagFan?) in order to shore up the backcourt depth.

At the time, Geno was quoted as saying, “Inês is a true point guard. She loves to distribute the ball and can make shots,” Geno Auriemma said in a release. “She’s used to playing in the European style of ball movement, ball screens, lots of 2-man game, 3-man game. I think she’s a tough kid and a great competitor. I’m thrilled that we were able to find her.”

Ines ended up spending two years at UConn where she played a fairly minor role for Geno’s squad as she averaged just 9.0 minutes and 5.6 minutes per game in ‘22-23 and ‘23-24, respectively. In those seasons, Ines played in 53 games, starting one, for 381 minutes during which time she tallied 52 points, 45 assists, 41 rebounds, 18 steals, 5 blocks, and 38 turnovers. Her shooting numbers weren’t particularly impressive at 35.7% from two and 23.8%, but that belies a pretty strong freshman year in which she posted a true shooting percentage of 50.2% and effective field goal percentage of 46.8%

The 5’9” guard has also featured for her nation at the youth ranks, most recently playing for Portugal in the FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket where she played in 7 games averaging 9.1 points, 3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.3 steals, and 2.6 turnovers with a player efficiency rating of 7.6 as she struggled with her shooting efficiency by going 29.6% overall and 27.6% from three. While Portugal only ended up finishing 11th in the tournament, Bettencourt finished first on the team in minutes played, third in points, first in assists, and second in steals.

While she lacks the college pedigree that a player like Tayla Dalton carries, Ines steps into a much needed role on this team and, with her two remaining years of eligibility, should be a player that develops within this program and help carry on the lineage of strong Gonzaga guards. We are called GU after all

Here are some highlights to check out on Ines:

Totally unrelated, but this picture is funny af: