Born in Baltimore, Md., but raised as a British citizen when her Nigerian family moved to London when she was 2 years old, Fagbenle revealed herself to be charismatic, smart, worldly, and an enormous athletic talent as the highest-rated basketball recruit in Harvard women’s history.

But, as an incoming freshman, Fagbenle wound up being a Brit idle on the Harvard women’s team when the NCAA declared her ineligible for the 2011-12 season because of its strict enforcement of a British academic rule. Harvard, though, chose to characterize Fagbenle’s first season as “a year in residency.’’

“Temi should’ve played last year,’’ insisted Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who still chafes a year later at the NCAA’s decision to penalize Fagbenle, 20, a year of eligibility.

A productive 6-foot-4-inch sophomore on Harvard’s 17-8 team (8-3 Ivy League), Fagbenle was forced to forfeit her first year at Harvard when she took three years, instead of two, to enroll in college after passing a General Certificate of Secondary Education exam, the British equivalent of the PSAT.

In Britain, a student looking to pursue a college education is required to take the GCSE by age 15 and is allowed two years from that point to complete his or her high school education and enroll in a university. Fagbenle left London after her sophomore year and enrolled at Blair (N.J.) Academy, where she repeated her junior year and took three years to complete her high school education in the US.

After spurning offers from Duke, Connecticut, and Boston College to play at Harvard, Fagbenle was stunned to learn she would have to sit out her first year.

“I didn’t really feel like I did anything wrong,’’ said Fagbenle. “The English academic system might not be known too well by the NCAA, and I think that needs to be cleared up to understand where people lie, because I don’t think I was trying to cheat the system at all and I don’t think I did.’’

Harvard tried four times to appeal to the NCAA on Fagbenle’s behalf.

“I will agree to disagree with the NCAA,’’ Delaney-Smith said. “I lost so much confidence in the NCAA last year on how they handled her case. They were entirely, 100 percent wrong for not looking out for the student-athlete.

“She’s a kid who made all these decisions for academic reasons and she was punished and thrown into a group of athletes that make athletic decisions,’’ Delaney-Smith said. “That was not her. The fact that she’s here and turned down Duke and UConn and all of these other places — shame on you NCAA, shame on you.’’

If the transition from prep school to the Ivy League wasn’t jarring enough, the NCAA’s ruling left Fagbenle, who was barred from traveling with the team or playing in any games during the 2011-12 season, feeling like an outsider.

“Yeah, it definitely tested me,’’ said Fagbenle, who is Harvard’s third-leading scorer (12.5 points per game) and rebounding leader (7.6 per game) this season with three games remaining.

“It was particularly hard to sit on the bench and watch my team play during home games, knowing that I was perfectly capable of stepping on the court right then and for some reason was not allowed,’’ she said. “It was very hard to get over. It was pretty hard to stay — and do nothing.’’

Fagbenle used her time away from the game to “strengthen myself academically and athletically,’’ she said. “I had more time to do my school work, I had more time to lift and get stronger and work on my moves. Obviously, it was difficult, because I was lonely for most of that time, but it was a blessing in disguise. It definitely helped me.’’

What made it even more difficult was that Harvard, which finished second in the Ivy League race, would likely have contended for the title and a coveted NCAA berth had Fagbenle been in the lineup. “She would’ve changed our season dramatically,’’ Delaney-Smith said. “But when that door got shut, she was invited to try out for the Olympics.’’