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Mar. 22—Her mother's name is enshrined in the Lewis-Clark State record books, but according to the Warriors' scoring queen herself, Avery Howell is the best basketball player in the family.
"She's obviously surpassed my level, which is wonderful," Rosie Howell said of her daughter, Avery Howell, a freshman on the University of Southern California women's basketball team. "It's been really exciting to see and follow through. It's been a little surreal."
Avery Howell and her No. 1-seeded Trojans tip off against No. 16 seed University of North Carolina-Greensboro in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at noon today in Los Angeles on ESPN.
In the family
Avery's mother, Rosie Howell, formerly Rosie Albert, played for the LC State women's basketball team from 1994-98. The Salmo, British Columbia, native left Lewiston as the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,276 career points — a record that stands to this day.
Rosie Howell and the Warriors advanced to the national tournament for the first time in program history in 1996 and made two more trips to the national stage, including a run to the quarterfinals.
LC State retired her jersey and in 2013 inducted Rosie into the LCSC Athletics Hall of Fame, the first year that multiple Warrior greats had their legacies enshrined on the Lewiston campus. Former LCSC baseball coach Ed Cheff was a one-man inaugural induction class in 2011.
Rosie Howell and her family returned to Lewiston for the 2013 ceremony. Avery Howell was 7 years old and more into soccer than basketball at the time.
Her father, Brian Howell, grew up in Lewiston and her brother, Cooper Howell, redshirted on the LC State men's basketball team in 2021 and is in his senior year at LC State.
Avery Howell — who played high school ball at Boise High School — has already accumulated a laundry list of accomplishments on the court.
She is a two-time Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year, an annual award reserved for the best high school basketball player in the state. She also served as an alternate for Team Canada's 2024 Olympic team. As a dual Canadian and United States citizen, Avery Howell eyes the summer 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
With the season she has had in Los Angeles as a sharp-shooting true freshman on a 28-3 USC Trojans squad, the Boise native is well on her way to achieving that goal.
At USC, Howell has spent an average of 19.5 minutes on the court, producing 6.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.
She tallied a career-high 18 points in USC's 79-37 win at Purdue on Jan. 22 and poured in 10, 11 and eight points in USC's Big Ten Tournament games against Indiana, Michigan and UCLA, respectively.
Howell's recruitment process came later in her high school career than some, but after her participation in the Adidas Circuit — a series of basketball camps and tournaments with some of the best high school basketball players in the country — coaches began to seriously recruit her.
"Her recruiting just went through the roof," Rosie Howell said. "The amount of offers that came in in a short span was pretty overwhelming."
While most prospective student-athletes have years to get to know a program, a coaching staff and a school, Avery Howell had to make a decision quickly.
Avery Howell made her decision without seeing last season's freshman phenom JuJu Watkins play a minute of basketball. However, she trusted USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and knew of highly touted recruits such as Watkins that were joining the program.
Despite a Big Ten travel schedule taking her across the country, Avery Howell's parents have traveled to several games in Los Angeles and made trips to University of Oregon and University of Washington.
One of Rosie Howell's favorite memories of watching her daughter play basketball this year was seeing her guard presumptive top WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers when USC beat UConn 72-70.
Avery Howell's success has not surprised her mother and she's loved every minute of it.
"I'm a really competitive person," Rosie Howell said. "And then I met my daughter, and she takes it to another level. And she just absolutely loves the game and leaves it all on the court every time she's out there. Whether she's training on her own, whether she's in a game, whether she's in a practice — it is 100% all the time."
Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM
A new era of women's basketball
Avery Howell got to college just in time to experience a new age of women's basketball, where the game has grown to a remarkable extent in terms of fan interest, media coverage and commercial value.
Last season's women's basketball NCAA final between South Carolina and Iowa averaged 18 million viewers and peaked at 24 million, surpassing that year's men's final for the first time.
Not only is Rosie Howell thrilled to watch her daughter pursue her dreams and play basketball at a high level, she is also ecstatic that she's doing it at a time when women's basketball is as popular as ever.
"I graduated in the inaugural year of the WNBA. I didn't grow up even being able to dream of playing professional basketball, nor was I good enough. It wasn't even a dream I could have in the United States," Rosie Howell said. "Women's basketball is huge right now, and she's part of that."
The game is also rich with parity, with upsets happening more frequently in the women's NCAA Tournament and big-name stars capturing mainstream attention.
Stars such as Iowa's Caitlin Clark and LSU's Angel Reese (now in the WNBA) and current college sensations Bueckers of UConn and Avery Howell's USC teammate, Watkins, have boosted women's basketball's popularity in recent years.
"When USC was playing UCLA (in the Big Ten championship), (Avery Howell's) uncle was down at a bar watching it, and someone came in and said, 'Do you have the game on?' And that game was USC, UCLA women," Rosie Howell said. "There's something about that that almost gives me chills. It's like, that was 'the game.' "
Under the lights
If Avery Howell and the Trojans win two games in Los Angeles this weekend, USC will advance to the Sweet 16, hosted in Spokane. Rosie Howell said she has plenty of family and friends from across the Inland Northwest excited to watch her daughter play.
Avery Howell has played in a slew of big games this season, but the NCAA Tournament is a whole new level.
It doesn't bother her.
"She loves it," Rosie Howell said. "Avery has always been up for big moments and big challenges. I've asked her a few times about, like, 'Did you notice the crowd when you were playing UConn?' And she's like, 'Sort of, but I love it."
Other local March Madness connections
Andrea Lloyd-Curry, broadcaster
A back-to-back Idaho state champion with the Moscow Bears, Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Andrea Lloyd-Curry is sharing her basketball expertise on the mic. The Moscow native broadcasted No. 2-seeded TCU's 73-51 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on ESPN on Friday.
Lloyd-Curry won an NCAA national championship with Texas in 1986 and a gold medal with Team USA at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Charlisse Leger-Walker, UCLA
The four-year Coug sat out this season recovering from an ACL tear that cut her Washington State career short. She transferred to now No. 1-seeded UCLA but took a medical redshirt in 2024-25 and is expected to return to the Bruins' active roster next season.
Brandton Chatfield, Iowa State
Chatfield played high school basketball at Orofino and Clarkston before beginning his college basketball career at WSU in 2019. He transferred to Seattle U in 2021, started each of the Redhawks' 37 games in 2023-24 and found his way to Iowa State, where he has boosted the Cyclones to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa State beat Lipscomb 82-55 in the first round and will next play Ole Miss at 4:45 p.m. Pacific on Sunday.
For more on Chatfield and other local connections to March Madness, including Gonzaga senior Ben Gregg and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, check out the Friday edition of the Tribune or lmtribune.com/sports.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
"She's obviously surpassed my level, which is wonderful," Rosie Howell said of her daughter, Avery Howell, a freshman on the University of Southern California women's basketball team. "It's been really exciting to see and follow through. It's been a little surreal."
Avery Howell and her No. 1-seeded Trojans tip off against No. 16 seed University of North Carolina-Greensboro in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at noon today in Los Angeles on ESPN.
In the family
Avery's mother, Rosie Howell, formerly Rosie Albert, played for the LC State women's basketball team from 1994-98. The Salmo, British Columbia, native left Lewiston as the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,276 career points — a record that stands to this day.
Rosie Howell and the Warriors advanced to the national tournament for the first time in program history in 1996 and made two more trips to the national stage, including a run to the quarterfinals.
LC State retired her jersey and in 2013 inducted Rosie into the LCSC Athletics Hall of Fame, the first year that multiple Warrior greats had their legacies enshrined on the Lewiston campus. Former LCSC baseball coach Ed Cheff was a one-man inaugural induction class in 2011.
Rosie Howell and her family returned to Lewiston for the 2013 ceremony. Avery Howell was 7 years old and more into soccer than basketball at the time.
Her father, Brian Howell, grew up in Lewiston and her brother, Cooper Howell, redshirted on the LC State men's basketball team in 2021 and is in his senior year at LC State.
Avery Howell — who played high school ball at Boise High School — has already accumulated a laundry list of accomplishments on the court.
She is a two-time Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year, an annual award reserved for the best high school basketball player in the state. She also served as an alternate for Team Canada's 2024 Olympic team. As a dual Canadian and United States citizen, Avery Howell eyes the summer 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
With the season she has had in Los Angeles as a sharp-shooting true freshman on a 28-3 USC Trojans squad, the Boise native is well on her way to achieving that goal.
At USC, Howell has spent an average of 19.5 minutes on the court, producing 6.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.
She tallied a career-high 18 points in USC's 79-37 win at Purdue on Jan. 22 and poured in 10, 11 and eight points in USC's Big Ten Tournament games against Indiana, Michigan and UCLA, respectively.
Howell's recruitment process came later in her high school career than some, but after her participation in the Adidas Circuit — a series of basketball camps and tournaments with some of the best high school basketball players in the country — coaches began to seriously recruit her.
"Her recruiting just went through the roof," Rosie Howell said. "The amount of offers that came in in a short span was pretty overwhelming."
While most prospective student-athletes have years to get to know a program, a coaching staff and a school, Avery Howell had to make a decision quickly.
Avery Howell made her decision without seeing last season's freshman phenom JuJu Watkins play a minute of basketball. However, she trusted USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and knew of highly touted recruits such as Watkins that were joining the program.
Despite a Big Ten travel schedule taking her across the country, Avery Howell's parents have traveled to several games in Los Angeles and made trips to University of Oregon and University of Washington.
One of Rosie Howell's favorite memories of watching her daughter play basketball this year was seeing her guard presumptive top WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers when USC beat UConn 72-70.
Avery Howell's success has not surprised her mother and she's loved every minute of it.
"I'm a really competitive person," Rosie Howell said. "And then I met my daughter, and she takes it to another level. And she just absolutely loves the game and leaves it all on the court every time she's out there. Whether she's training on her own, whether she's in a game, whether she's in a practice — it is 100% all the time."
Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM
A new era of women's basketball
Avery Howell got to college just in time to experience a new age of women's basketball, where the game has grown to a remarkable extent in terms of fan interest, media coverage and commercial value.
Last season's women's basketball NCAA final between South Carolina and Iowa averaged 18 million viewers and peaked at 24 million, surpassing that year's men's final for the first time.
Not only is Rosie Howell thrilled to watch her daughter pursue her dreams and play basketball at a high level, she is also ecstatic that she's doing it at a time when women's basketball is as popular as ever.
"I graduated in the inaugural year of the WNBA. I didn't grow up even being able to dream of playing professional basketball, nor was I good enough. It wasn't even a dream I could have in the United States," Rosie Howell said. "Women's basketball is huge right now, and she's part of that."
The game is also rich with parity, with upsets happening more frequently in the women's NCAA Tournament and big-name stars capturing mainstream attention.
Stars such as Iowa's Caitlin Clark and LSU's Angel Reese (now in the WNBA) and current college sensations Bueckers of UConn and Avery Howell's USC teammate, Watkins, have boosted women's basketball's popularity in recent years.
"When USC was playing UCLA (in the Big Ten championship), (Avery Howell's) uncle was down at a bar watching it, and someone came in and said, 'Do you have the game on?' And that game was USC, UCLA women," Rosie Howell said. "There's something about that that almost gives me chills. It's like, that was 'the game.' "
Under the lights
If Avery Howell and the Trojans win two games in Los Angeles this weekend, USC will advance to the Sweet 16, hosted in Spokane. Rosie Howell said she has plenty of family and friends from across the Inland Northwest excited to watch her daughter play.
Avery Howell has played in a slew of big games this season, but the NCAA Tournament is a whole new level.
It doesn't bother her.
"She loves it," Rosie Howell said. "Avery has always been up for big moments and big challenges. I've asked her a few times about, like, 'Did you notice the crowd when you were playing UConn?' And she's like, 'Sort of, but I love it."
Other local March Madness connections
Andrea Lloyd-Curry, broadcaster
A back-to-back Idaho state champion with the Moscow Bears, Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Andrea Lloyd-Curry is sharing her basketball expertise on the mic. The Moscow native broadcasted No. 2-seeded TCU's 73-51 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on ESPN on Friday.
Lloyd-Curry won an NCAA national championship with Texas in 1986 and a gold medal with Team USA at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Charlisse Leger-Walker, UCLA
The four-year Coug sat out this season recovering from an ACL tear that cut her Washington State career short. She transferred to now No. 1-seeded UCLA but took a medical redshirt in 2024-25 and is expected to return to the Bruins' active roster next season.
Brandton Chatfield, Iowa State
Chatfield played high school basketball at Orofino and Clarkston before beginning his college basketball career at WSU in 2019. He transferred to Seattle U in 2021, started each of the Redhawks' 37 games in 2023-24 and found his way to Iowa State, where he has boosted the Cyclones to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa State beat Lipscomb 82-55 in the first round and will next play Ole Miss at 4:45 p.m. Pacific on Sunday.
For more on Chatfield and other local connections to March Madness, including Gonzaga senior Ben Gregg and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, check out the Friday edition of the Tribune or lmtribune.com/sports.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
