Written by Isabelle Hendrich, Faith Editor
DAYTON, TN – Deandra Luna, who plays point guard for Bryan College’s women’s basketball team, set an all-new assist record on Jan. 24th’s game against Bluefield University.
The record was previously held by Carol Cummings with 665 assists in 1985. Luna broke the 37-year-old record, with 667 assists as of Monday. In addition, she has the rest of the season to further her record.
Luan graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Bryan College last year, majoring in Biology. She is now working on her master’s degree in Human Services.
The women’s Basketball team is currently ranked #14 out of the top 25 top college teams of divisions one and two since the NAIA combined them last year.
Lun’s achievement has come only a year after she recovered from an ACL injury to her left leg. The injury occurred in mid-October of 2020 a week before the season was set to start.
“It was the last five minutes of practice and I went up for a layup and I jumped-stopped,” Luna said. “It [her leg] just gave out on me and I tore my ACL and my discus.”
Luna had surgery on her ACL in December. If the doctor had fixed Luna’s discus, it would have meant Luna would have not been able to walk for an additional six weeks.
Due to her injury, Luna had to take a year off of basketball. Because of that, she is able to play this year despite graduating last May.
“I was really nervous to start running, obviously, I was really afraid to put a lot of weight on it but I actually did therapy here at Omni,” Luna said. “They helped me a lot with the fear aspect because I was so scared because I didn’t want it to happen again.”
Luna is from White County, TN, and had played games in Rhea County but Luna had not considered Bryan College as an option to attend until a friend told her about how great of a time she had at Bryan College’s basketball camp.
Because of what her friend said, Luna decided to visit Bryan and attend chapel on her visit day. The song that was playing when she entered chapel was Oceans by Hillsong United.
“Hearing everyone singing together and being in that space and I remember looking at my mom and I knew in that moment that that’s the type of college experience that I wanted,” Luna said. “I wanted to be able to be with people that loved God and get to grow with them.”
Currently, Luna is considering numerous jobs after graduating with her master’s degree in May, such as working at a zoo or becoming a coach in White County, TN. Over the past summer, Luna interned at the Chattanooga Zoo where she worked with snow leopards, gibbons, birds, ducks and giraffes.
