Atlanta Dream Sign Natisha Hiedeman

Natisha Hiedeman just got a little closer to making her official WNBA debut.

The #3 scoring player in Marquette women’s basketball was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday. Head coach (and Marquette alum) Nicki Collen needed a new body on the roster with Alex Bentley headed to Latvia and Serbia to represent Belarus in Eurobasket, and the Dream elected to bring in Hiedeman to fill in.

Bentley will be gone until at least July 1st. Belarus plays three group play games on June 27th, 28th, and 30th. The tournament continues through July 7th, so as long as Belarus stays alive, then Bentley will still be there and not back in Atlanta.

Thus, Hiedeman will be on the roster for at least three games, and potentially as many as six, maybe seven depending on how fast Bentley returns from Europe. Coincidentally, Atlanta’s first game with Hiedeman on board will be against the team that acquired Hiedeman on draft night but cut her before the season started. Atlanta visits the Connecticut Sun on Friday night, with the game available for viewing on NESN+ and the WSB Now stream out of Atlanta, as well as WNBA League Pass.

Hiedeman wrapped up her time at Marquette as the #3 all-time scorer with 1,913 points, falling just 27 points short of what used to be Krystal Ellis’ program record of 1,940. She also ended up #6 all-time in assists with 457 and became the first MU player to record 300 made three-pointers. Hiedeman’s 301 triples in her career surpassed Lori Goerlitz’s previous record of 223.

If I’m right, I believe that if Hiedeman gets into a game for the Dream, she will become the first Marquette player to ever officially appear in the WNBA. Abbie Willenborg and Angel Robinson were both selected in the WNBA Draft, but it appears that neither of them appeared in a regular season game. Hiedeman will get a chance to break that barrier for the Golden Eagles. In six games this season so far for the Dream, Bentley was averaging 7.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 22.8 minutes per game. That’s a pretty significant role coming off the bench for Atlanta, and Hiedeman adds the bonus of potentially being a better three-point shooter than Bentley. She was knocking in 28.3% of her shots overall and 25.8% from long range.

Here’s the Dream’s schedule for the time where we can expect Bentley to be out of the country and thus keeping Hiedeman on the roster.

All times Central

Friday, June 21 — at Connecticut Sun, 6:30pm
Sunday, June 23 — Washington Mystics, Noon (ESPN)
Sunday, June 30 — New York Liberty, 2pm
Tuesday, July 2 — at Minnesota Lynx, 7pm (CBS Sports Network)
Friday, July 5 — at Seattle Storm, 9pm
Sunday, July 7 — at Phoenix Mercury, 5pm
Wednesday, July 10 — Connecticut Sun, 10am (NBA TV)