Lady Bandits finished the season with three wins from 22 games in a rebuilding season for the club, but Lepaio still made quite an impact in the nation’s second-tier competition.

Taking home the MVP award came as a shock for the Bathurst player.

“It was really quite a surprise. There were a lot of girls on the team who also had a really good season,” she said.

Lepaio shot 13.6 points per game but more impressively came away with an average of 10 rebounds a match, including one fixture where she snatched a remarkable 19 boards.

It was an enjoyable season for the Bathurst player who took a lot away the experience, despite her team not meeting their goals.

“Even though we didn’t quite win as many games as we would have liked to we were still very competitive in most of our games,” she said.

“There were probably only two games where we were blown off the court but in most of our losses it was by less than 10 points.

“They’re a great bunch of girls to play with and be around, both on and off the court, and the vibe at the club is really great.”

Lepaio was a key figure for the Bandits from the outset of the season as she spent at least 30 minutes on the court in every single one of their matches.

A season high of 26 points came Lepaio’s way in her team's win over the Hobart Chargers while in the penultimate round she claimed a 24-point haul against the Brisbane Spartans.

Lepaio was also reliable from the free throw line where she finished with a 76 per cent success rate for the year.

The Bandits’ two other season wins came against Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence (79-76) and Kilsyth Cobras (77-74).

Lepaio said that once she played her way into the season she was able to develop some consistency.

“I felt like I was a bit rusty at the start of the season. I hadn’t played for a while. Towards the end of the season I found my feet again,” she said.

“I was doing a lot of different things and playing in a lot of different roles compared to what I would normally do. I was playing all over the court and not just always under the basket.

“The team is trying to recruit more players for next season … and Jim [Wilson, coach] is working hard to get a good team on paper for next year.”

Lepaio is not yet signed on for another season at Albury-Wodonga.

Prior to this season Lepaio had enjoyed a successful run at Newberry College in the US where she not only took the team’s career point scoring record but helped the squad to a conference title.