Emma Theodorsson didn’t begin her day with even the slightest inkling that anything might be out of the ordinary.
By the time the Bucknell sophomore took the floor with her teammates for pregame warm ups ahead of their Jan. 17 Patriot League showdown against Boston University, though, her outlook on the day began to shift.
“I wasn’t really hitting my shots,” recalled Theodorsson, a 2022 Moon graduate, of her pregame routine before the conference matchup at Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg. “I was like, ‘Oh no, please go in during the game.’”
As it turned out, the performance Theodorsson turned in was more emblematic of the type of showing the burgeoning Patriot League star has been unfurling all season.
Theodorsson scored a career-high 31 points – making 10-of-18 shots from the field, 3-of-5 attempts from 3-point range and 8-of-10 shots from the free-throw line.
The 6-foot-1 guard/forward is averaging a team-high 12.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. She is also making a Bisons-best 38% of her 3-point attempts and has a team-high 31 assists.
“It honestly felt so great,” said Theodorsson of her performance in Bucknell’s win against Boston. “It’s kind of very rewarding because you put in all this hard work and you finally get to show, yeah, I can do this. I can play this way.”
Despite earning her first Patriot League Player of the Week performance a week ago, Bucknell coach Trevor Woodruff said Theodorsson’s play midway through her sophomore campaign has been in line with the expectations he had when first watching the player he recruited at Moon.
“Emma, she’s talented but she’s driven,” Woodruff said. “She has big goals. She’s a willing leader, so a lot of the things that you’re looking for in high achievers.”
As a senior at Moon, Theodorsson averaged a team-high 18.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game to lead the Tigers to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time in 15 years. She finished her high school career third on Moon’s all-time scoring list with 1,508 points.
Theodorsson then transitioned to Division I Bucknell, where she appeared in 27 games, and started in 21, as a freshman a season ago. She averaged 7.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game en route to being named to the Patriot League all-rookie team.
“We felt like she was a potential Patriot League Player of the Year caliber player, obviously down the road,” said Woodruff of his initial impression of Theodorsson. “She has the opportunity to develop into one of, if not the best, players in the league. She showed great signs as a freshman, it’s very difficult to go into college at any level and contribute right away.
“She worked her way into the starting lineup and she’s made even more strides this year,” he added. “If we can just keep her on this trajectory I think our initial vision could prove to be correct.”
Woodruff said developing consistency has been critical to Theodorsson’s development.
Theodorsson has scored in double figures in 12 of the Bisons’ 17 games this season, which includes a stretch of nine consecutive games scoring 10 points or more.
“She can score in every way,” Woodruff said. “She’s comfortable facing the basket and shooting the ball from 3. She’s able to play off the bounce and she can post up. If you figure that’s kind of the three main ways that people generate offense, she can do it all.”
And Woodruff said he is beginning to see signs Theodorsson is set to take the next step in her development.
“She’s consistently been a scorer for us,” Woodruff said. “Some games bigger than others but she’s always a main threat. What she’s now doing is she’s creating opportunities for others, which is going to take her to another level when she’s not just a scorer but she’s being a playmaker for other people.”
Theodorsson said she credits much of her speedy development to working on her post game with Sherill Baker, Bucknell assistant coach/recruiting coordinator, and from time spent playing overseas.
Now a veteran of the Icelandic U18 and U20 National women’s teams, Theodorsson traveled to the homeland of her father, Oli, before the start of her senior year at Moon and then again this summer.
In her most recent trip, Theodorsson averaged 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game en route to helping Iceland to a sixth-place finish at the U20 Women’s European Championships in Romania.
Iceland also played in the Nordic Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, last summer.
“I think that has definitely helped me this year just with being more aggressive, and over the summer I really worked on my 3-point shot,” Theodorsson said.
To represent her father’s home country in an international tournament was also an honor, Emma said.
“My dad’s from Iceland, and his whole family lives over there,” she said. “He’s the only one that doesn’t live there.”
Oli Theodorsson originally immigrated to the United States to attend Alfred State University in New York, where he stayed for two years before he was recruited to play basketball and soccer at Point Park University. A member of the school’s athletic hall of fame, Oli Theodorsson was a starter on the Pioneers men’s basketball team, which advanced to the Final Four of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics men’s basketball tournament in 1997.
“We had a really good team, and we did a really good job,” said Emma Theodorsson, whose mother, Lori, played women’s basketball at Point Park.
Theodorsson said she hopes to help Iceland qualify for the Olympic Games once her career at Bucknell is over.
“Hopefully one day I would love to play in those (Olympic qualifiers) and have the chance to play in the Olympics,” she said.
For now, though, Theodorsson said she is focused on helping her young team win a Patriot League championship and qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Although the Bisons young starting lineup regularly includes four sophomores and a freshman, Theodorsson said she is bullish on her team’s chances to compete at that level this season and certainly beyond.
“Overall, above all, just being able to go to the NCAA tournament, that’s always been a dream,” she said. “Growing up watching the ‘Bruins girls’ that I’ve looked up to, the Western Pa. Bruins (AAU program), go to NCAA, oh my gosh, I want to be like them.
“This year, I think we are really focused on building and growing,” Theodorsson added. “I think we are able to win during that process.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.