This article was originally published by Alaska Sports Report Reporter Van WIlliams.
Molly Tuter, a legendary high school and college basketball player from Soldotna who was the first Alaskan to play in the WNBA, has died. She was 49.
The state’s first two-time Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993 at SoHi, Tuter went on to play at Arizona State University where she became one of the first players from The Last Frontier to earn all-conference honors at the NCAA Division I level, in the Pac-10 no less.
The 6-foot shooting guard pumped in 1,374 points at ASU and finished her career ranked fifth on Alaska’s all-time college scoring list (she’s 14th today).
Tuter was the first Alaska woman to make 100 3-pointers in college and the second to reach the 30-point benchmark in a Division I game after scoring a career-high of 32 against Southern Utah in 1997.
A big guard, she was known for crashing the glass. She collected 650 rebounds at ASU to finish her career third among Alaskans, first among backcourt players. Her 221 steals still rank third all-time among Alaskans, a testament to her defensive prowess in a league chalk full of scorers. Indeed, Tuter was more than just a jump shooter.
A two-time All-Pac-10 selection in 1996 and 1997, she signed with the Phoenix Mercury for the WNBA’s inaugural season. She played in three games, the first of six Alaskans to play in the league.
The next season she got into coaching, first as an assistant at UCLA for two seasons and then UC Irvine for the next four seasons. In 2004, she became the head coach at Irvine and compiled a 30-81 record during her four years as bench boss.
Tuter was inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Arizona State Hall of Fame in 2011.
After basketball, Tuter turned to her college degree in social work in Bullhead City, Arizona, where she moved to in 2009. There, she was a referee, a travel ball coach and co-owner of the Sand Bar and Grill.
Tuter was in critical condition at Sunrise Hospital in nearby Las Vegas last month, according to friends on social media, and died over the weekend.
In 1993, Tuter led Soldotna to its lone Class 4A girls state championship in basketball and was named player of the year alongside East’s Trajan Langdon. In many ways, she was on his level in high school.
“Teams had to adjust to her,” Soldotna coach Dan Gensel told the Anchorage Daily News in 1993. “She can play up front and on the post. She’s real versatile.”
She was also inspiring. When Tuter was a freshman, Gensel promised he’d wear an earring if Soldotna won a state title before she graduated.
A week after winning one, Gensel’s ear was pierced during a school pep assembly. “It’s a little gold star,” Tuter said.
Tuter and Gensel were peanut butter and jelly – you couldn’t talk about one without bringing up the other.
They will be forever linked.
Gensel died in the spring of 2023 and a year and a half later, his star point guard passed away.