City of Basketball Love

Melissa Dougherty (@missyingyou)
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Ashna Tambe was five years old when she started playing basketball, and it was around age eight or nine where she realized her early talent.

“My mom played at the national level in India when she was in high school and college,” Tambe said.

Shruti (Sharma) Tambe passed her love of the game, cultivated in India, to her daughter, as she trained Ashna in her early years. 

“My mom is my biggest fan,” Tambe said. “I wear jersey number 10 whenever I can because it is the same number my mom wore in India.”

A love and passion for the game that has its roots in her mom’s playing career in India will now reach the city of Philadelphia as the rising senior, a 5-foot-7 combo guard from Hockaday School (Tex.) committed to coach Mike McLaughlin and the University of Pennsylvania women’s basketball program on July 1.

She’s one of three commits the Quakers’ women have for next fall, along with Manasquan (N.J.) forward Katie Collins and Camas (Wash.) wing Reagan Jamison.

What can the Penn faithful expect to see when Tambe suits up for the Quakers?

“I am a scoring point guard with a high basketball IQ,” she said. “I like to read both my teammates and opponents.”

Having received double-digit scholarship offers to play at the next level, Tambe was drawn to Penn by the chance to play at the highest level with the best academics.

“I saw how the program both developed the guards and played through them,” she said as she made special mention of Kayla Padilla as an example.

“The coaches were super nice and welcoming. I have developed great relationships with them.

My official visit in late June gave me the chance to get to know the coaches better and see where I fit.”

This was not Tambe’s first visit to Philadelphia as the native of Dallas lived close to Philadelphia in Wilmington, Delaware, before she was of school age, before the family moved back to Texas.

“I also visited last November,” Tambe said. “I love the sense of community at Penn. I felt welcomed when I visited and really loved the area.”

“My official visit to Penn was the third official visit I had been on – following visits to Brown and Rice – so I had a better idea of options and what I was looking for.”

Tambe – who played for Team Lex on the Adidas circuit before joining the Mavs Elite AAU program on the Under Armour circuit a couple months ago – also sees the city of Philadelphia as a perfect backdrop to further her goal of giving back.

Having organized and ran a basketball camp for kids in the US-Mexico border town of Terlingua with the help of her older brother Ekansh (a sophomore at Harvard who focused on tutoring and photography projects), Tambe eyes the opportunity to make a similar impact on the Philadelphia community.

While Tambe is already formulating her goals for when she arrives in Philadelphia, she will first look to put the finishing touches this winter on an outstanding scholastic career at the Hockaday School that has already seen the guard become the first player in program history to surpass the 1,000-point plateau last January. 

Primarily known for its academics, Hockaday’s girls’ basketball has reaped the rewards of having Tambe in the lineup.

Melanie Horn-Foster, who coached Tambe during her first three years in the program before stepping down at the end of the season, has had a front-row seat to Tambe’s hard work and relentless pursuit to improve.

“Ashna is an excellent outside shooter who doesn’t mind driving the ball,” Horn-Foster said. “I’ve been at Hockaday for almost 20 years and I have never known a player whose love and passion for the game developed at such a young age. She’s a force to be reckoned with everytime she is on the floor and has put the Hockaday program on the map.”

Reflecting on her scholastic career to this point, Tambe has enjoyed her time in a Hockaday uniform but still has goals to accomplish.

“It’s been a great three years so far,” Tambe said as she made mention of breaking the school scoring record and the opportunity to develop her leadership skills. “I want to work on getting stronger in the weight room and moving my range out further. I know the pace of the college game is different and the game itself is more spread out.”

Horn-Foster echoed how Tambe, who averaged 26 points per game as a junior, is continuously working on her craft in a humble fashion, fully recognizing her weaknesses and her strengths.

“She’s a baller,” the long-time Hockaday staff member said. “Anyone can talk noise but Ashna can back it up.”

“Penn is getting a player who knows how to take control of the game – who thinks fast on her feet and makes players around her better, even those ‘playing for fun.’ ”

Sharing stories about Tambe’s advanced maturity level on the court, Horn-Foster acknowledged opposing coaches would often ask her when number 10 was graduating.

“Any program who can add Ashna is a lucky team and a lucky coach,” Horn-Foster said.

Tambe has also felt lucky in terms of sharing her basketball journey with her brother and her parents – Shruti and Vinay Tambe.

Any friendly competition between mother and daughter?

“My mom rebounds for me, and after I finish shooting, we usually finish with playing some one-on-one.” Ashna said, “which by the way, I always win.”