SE: K-State WBB Alum Breanna Lewis Regains Winning Feeling in Championship Season in Bulgaria

By Corbin McGuire

A year ago, Breanna Lewis forgot what the sensation of winning felt like. Last week, she capped a season filled with it.

K-State's former All-Big 12 center helped Beroe, out of Bulgaria, win the WABA Championship on March 24. She scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the title game. Afterward, she hoisted a trophy for the first time since winning a high school state title in Wisconsin.

"We just stormed the court," Lewis said of the celebration. "It meant a lot."

For Lewis, the joy was overwhelming. Her excitement and satisfaction stemmed from a number of areas.

The game's ending — her fouling out in the fourth quarter, her team trailing by one point, her teammate being fouled on a last-second 3-point attempt and making two free throws for the win — was one thing.

More than that, it was a milestone in Lewis' young professional career that started with her being selected by the Dallas Wings as the No. 23 overall pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft. It was a sense of achievement after her first season in Europe ended with a 7-17 record for a team in Poland. The championship was also a reminder that the game is bigger than any one person, including her 6-foot-5 self.

"My first year, I was introduced to the professional overseas life. Our season wasn't very good. We were at the bottom of the league. I really didn't know what it felt like to win, literally," Lewis said. "Playing for a title, not only for myself but for the Bulgarians, it was bigger than me. I just think for me, winning this title was an accomplishment. It's a big accomplishment for me that I can go home a champion in a different country."

Lewis left the United States after a second try at the WNBA. As a rookie, she played minimal minutes in 13 games for the Dallas Wings and spent most of the fall playing in Poland. She made Wings' roster again to start the 2018-19 regular season but was waived after six games.

Looking back, Lewis said her WNBA experiences opened her eyes.

"I think it showed me the difference of being an athlete and a professional athlete," she said. "Being a basketball player, it's more than just basketball. There's a lot of time you put into perfecting your craft. It made me realize that this is my career; this is not a hobby. So, just like in any other career, be all in, 100 percent."

Lewis took that mindset to heart, and then to Bulgaria. She said it combined well with the lessons and experiences she still carries from K-State.

"Being overseas, I have a lot of time. I literally will wake up, do a workout, rest, and then another workout, and then just have the time to do anything," she said. "Being a student-athlete allowed me to find ways to make my time useful rather than just sleeping or laying down."

Lewis did very little of either when she got to Bulgaria.

On the court, she averaged 15.0 points on 65.8 percent from the field, along with 9.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game in WABA games. The former Wildcat even provided steady support in her first ever Euro Cup, a prestigious tournament where the best teams from across the continent play for a bid into the Euro League. She averaged 10.7 points and 9.7 rebounds, as her team went 2-4 in pool play.

"You strive to play for a Euro League team and playing in Euro Cup games," she said. "For my team, we were fairly young. It was another opportunity for me to come to a team and help them."

Part of helping her team was dealing with an inherit language barrier. She said the keys to this were compromise and being vocal when confused. For instance, one time a coach wanted her to a set flare screen but said a different word for it. Lewis spoke up, and the two got on the same page. She did the same thing with her teammates, most of whom were Bulgarian.

"Their English isn't perfect," she said. "Knowing that I don't speak their language, we have to come to a common language."

Team chemistry was also a challenge, she said. Not because of personality clashes or anything of that sort, but due to the odd schedule the team played.

In WABA games, Beroe used its full roster. In the 20-game Bulgarian League schedule, however, only natives are allowed to play, forcing Lewis and a handful of others on the normal squad to sit out.

"It was difficult for us as a team to find our rhythm together. It was kind of a rollercoaster," she said. "But we had a lot more peaks than lows this season."

So did Lewis, who returns to the United States a champion and well-traveled.

This season, she took more advantage of the opportunity to experience different parts of the world. While her games took her to Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia, Lewis used down time to travel to spend a few days in Istanbul, Turkey, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Before she returns to the United States, she plans to check out Sofia, Bulgaria.

"I often think about times in college, even when we were just traveling from state to state, like, 'You really should have went and visited a place, maybe a museum or something just to sightsee, instead of staying in the hotel,'" she said. "Now, I think I appreciate it more because I get to see places I would have never even thought about traveling to."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: K-State WBB Alum Breanna Lewis Regains Winning Feeling in Championship Season in Bulgaria

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