Local DI Women excelling in Basketball
The season has started. Local women have found homes from coast to coast. And they are playing. And playing well. Take a look at who they are, what they are doing, and how they stack up nationally.
We are watching area women excel in NCAA volleyball. Our local products are doing the same in basketball. Today, we look at early results of the NCAA Division I Women. There are 123 women from Missouri and Kansas competing at the DI level. And they don’t sit much on the bench. An astounding 112 of them have already scored, including many freshmen. These ladies come from 83 high schools. Incarnate Word Academy has the longest list with five ladies. Jefferson City is just behind with four. There are eight schools with three playing DI, and nineteen high schools with two. Leave a comment below if you want to see the complete list of those schools.
These ladies have gone to play at warm island locations such as Corpus Christi and Manoa. Some have stayed local and are within driving distance for their family and friends. Some went for the academics of Duke and Cal-Poly. And one is in the Navy now (You are either my age, or a movie buff if you got that reference!).
And these ladies put the ball in the hoop. Eleven lead their team in scoring. E’Lease Stafford (Lawrence/UMKC) does with 19.4 points per game. Sanna’ St. Andre (Rock Bridge/UMKC) has the second most with 18.0. She would lead her team if E’Lease wasn’t her teammate! And we all know basketball requires teamwork. They excel at that, too. Emily Ryan (Central Plains/No. 5 Iowa State) has 50 assists in only 7 games. Ja’Mya Powell-Smith (North Kansas City/Grand Canyon) has dished out 17 assists in only 67 minutes of play. And a freshman showing that she is comfortable on the big stage is Kennedy Townsend (Park Hill/Creighton) who has 7 assists with no turnovers. That is an Assist to Turnover Ration of infinity. That is also a great start.
These women rank high nationally. The 50 assists by Emily Ryan is 8th in the country, as is her assist/turnover ratio of 3.57. Brooke Flowers (Metro Academic/St. Louis Univ.) is No. 1 in the country with both 41 blocks and 4.10 blocks per game. On the other end of the court, Brooke is shooting 62.96% from the field, 21st in the country. Evan Zars (Mill Valley/Grand Canyon) is shooting 66.67% from the field, good for 10th best nationally. Dani Winslow (Olathe South/UMKC) ranks 3rd in the country pulling down 13.9 rebounds per game. Kierra Prim (Shawnee Mission West/Central Arkansas) ranks 17th in the country with 10.6 boards per game. Kierra’s all around play has already earned her ASUN Conference Newcomer Player of the Week twice. It’s pretty sweet to be a Sugar Bear. Yes, the women at Central Arkansas are the Sugar Bears!
Here is the entire list of stats, ranked by points per game:
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