Tully Bevilaqua

Personal information
Born	(1972-07-19)19 July 1972 (age 53) Merredin, Western Australia, Australia
Listed height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Listed weight	145 lb (66 kg)
Career information
WNBA draft	1998:undrafted
Playing career	1998–2012
Position	Guard
Coaching career	2023–present
Career history
Playing
1991–2000	Perth Breakers
1998	Cleveland Rockers
2000–2002	Portland Fire
2000–2001	DJK Wildcats Aschaffenburg
2001–2003	GYSEV Sopron
2003–2004	Seattle Storm
2003–2004	Perth Lynx
2004–2008	Canberra Capitals
2005–2010	Indiana Fever
2010–2011	West Coast Waves
2011–2012	San Antonio Silver Stars
Coaching
2023	Phoenix Mercury
Career highlights
WNBA champion (2004) Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award (2007)
Stats at WNBA.com
Stats atBasketball Reference
Medals Women'sBasketball Representing Australia Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team Competition World Championship 2006 Brazil Team Competition Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne Team Competition

Tully Louise Bevilaqua (néeCrook on 19 July 1972) is an Australian retired professionalwomen's basketball player. She previously served as an assistant with thePhoenix Mercury in2023;^[1] she was added to theIndiana Fever coaching staff as a video associate in 2024.^[2] She formerly played for theSan Antonio Stars in theWNBA and thePerth Lynx in Australia'sWNBL. The 5'7" Bevilaqua's play style is energetic and disruptive, so much so that she is usually in the top 10 insteals. In the 2005 regular season, she had more steals per turnover than any other player.

Bevilaqua wentundrafted but was signed by theCleveland Rockers as afree agent before the 1998 season began. She appeared in 12 regular-season games before being waived by the team in July 1998.

In 2000, she signed a free agent contract with thePortland Fire and played with them for three seasons until the franchise folded after the 2002 season.

In 2003, she signed another contract with theSeattle Storm, and played two seasons for them, capping the 2004 season when the Storm won theWNBA Championship, defeating theConnecticut Sun, two games to one.

In 2005, she signed with theIndiana Fever, and led them to a #2 seed in the playoffs, where they swept theNew York Liberty in two games, but in turn were swept by theConnecticut Sun in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bevilaqua did not make the Australian national team until 2006 at the age of 34, when she helped lead the Opals to the gold medal in the2006 FIBA World Championship for Women.

On 27 August 2007, Bevilaqua played a key scoring, defensive, and leadership role in the greatest comeback in WNBA history when the Indiana Fever overcame a 22-point first half deficit to win the deciding game three of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the Connecticut Sun. Later that week on 31 August 2007 Tully was awarded theKim Perrot Sportsmanship Award from the WNBA.

The WNBA listed Bevilaqua's height at 5'7" (about 170 cm), though she was listed at only 164 cm (about 5'4.5") in the WNBL.

Bevilaqua is one of only four WNBA players to record at least 800 career assists and 500 career steals.^[3]

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One of the highlights of Bevilaqua's career was her participation on the 2004Seattle Storm championship team. In the championship series, theConnecticut Sun won the first game of a three-game series. Then, before sold-out crowds at Seattle's KeyArena, Bevilaqua and the Storm won the second and third games to take the crown as champion. Bevilaqua's role in the series was backup point guard to Sue Bird and Betty Lennox, but she contributed in every phase of the game—scoring, rebounding, and playing the tenacious defense that has become her trademark on theIndiana Fever.

Though listed as a backup guard, in the course of the Storm's 2004 championship run Bevilaqua played unusually long minutes. This was most evident in the second game against theMinnesota Lynx. Sue Bird was injured early in the game, and WNBA Finals MVP Betty Lennox quickly got into foul trouble. Storm coach Anne Donovan sent Bevilaqua in to run the offense, and she played 27 minutes to carry the team to victory. The Seattle crowd chanted her name repeatedly during the game.

In August 2021, Bevilaqua was inducted into theBasketball WA Hall of Fame.^[4]

Bevilaqua was born inMerredin, Western Australia in 1972.^[5] She playedAustralian rules football as a youth.^[6][7][8] Her hobbies includekaraoke singing,golfing,tennis,cricket, and readingPatricia Cornwell's novels. Bevilaqua wrote a regular column inThe Canberra Times on the progress of the Canberra Capitals during the 2006/07 WNBL season, and helped launchNfinity's women-specific basketball shoes in 2009.^[9]

In 2013, Bevilaqua married her partner Lindsay, with the union becoming official with Indiana's recognition of same-sex marriage in October 2014. Tully and Lindsay have two children, Parker and Mackenzie.^[6][10]

Source^[11]

• List of Australian WNBA players
• WNBL Defensive Player of the Year Award

• Official website
• WNBA Player Profile
• Fan site from her Seattle Storm playing days
• Tully Bevilaqua's WNBA Blog
• 12 May 2005INtake Weekly article
• 1 June 2005 WNBA article: "Tully Puts it 'Onya'"

• 1972 births
• Living people
• Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States
• Australian women's basketball players
• Basketball players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
• Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Canberra Capitals players
• Cleveland Rockers players
• Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
• Indiana Fever players
• Indiana Fever coaches
• LGBTQ basketball players
• LGBTQ people from Western Australia
• Australian lesbian sportswomen
• Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Olympic basketball players for Australia
• Olympic medalists in basketball
• Olympic silver medalists for Australia
• People from Merredin, Western Australia
• Perth Lynx players
• Point guards
• Portland Fire players
• San Antonio Stars players
• Seattle Storm players
• Commonwealth Games gold medallists in basketball
• Undrafted Women's National Basketball Association players
• Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
• Sportswomen from Western Australia
• 21st-century Australian sportswomen

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from June 2021
• Use Australian English from August 2011
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• BLP articles lacking sources from August 2024
• All BLP articles lacking sources