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LeTourneau Women’s Basketball Picked Fifth In ASC East Preseason Poll
RICHARDSON, Texas – The LeTourneau University women’s basketball team has been picked to finish fifth in the American Southwest Conference East Division Preseason Poll, announced by the ASC conference offices on Thursday afternoon.
The YellowJackets earned a total of 33 points, just one point back of fourth-place Belhaven who collected 34 points in the poll. Topping the preseason poll was the University of Texas-Dallas with 77 points and eight first-place votes while East Texas Baptist University came in second with 71 points and five first-place votes. The lone other first-place vote went to third-place Louisiana College who earned 58 points while Ozarks came in sixth in the poll with 18 points.
Over in the ASC west division, last year’s regular-season division champion Mary Hardin-Baylor was a runaway favorite with 12 of the 14 first-place votes while earning 76 points, well ahead of second place Concordia University Texas who made 51 points in the poll. McMurry would snag one of the two remaining first-place votes and come in third with 50 points in the survey, while Howard Payne earned 47 points and one first-place vote to finish fourth. Rounding out the West division preseason poll was Hardin-Simmons University in fifth place with 33 points and Sul Ross State University in sixth with 16 points.
Three LETU athletes were listed among this year’s players to watch list with sophomore Keauna Whitfield, junior Flora Akingbade, and senior Sha’Donnaver Young all being named as part of the 33-player roster. Whitfield appeared in and started all 25 games last year as a freshman, and was named to the ASC East Division All-Freshman team and was an ASC East Division Honorable-Mention selection after averaging 12.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. The Rosebud, Texas native scored a team-high 320 points last season and hauled in 224 rebounds, just four shy of cracking the top-10 single-season list at LeTourneau.
Young will enter the senior season after appearing in 13 games last season before missing the last 12 games of the year due to injury, and averaged 7.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year. The Houston, Texas native scored a season-high 15 points against McMurry and pulled in 11 rebounds in an overtime win at Schreiner.
Akingbade is in her first season with the YellowJackets, spending the past two season at Jacksonville College in Jacksonville, Texas. As a sophomore, While at Jacksonville College, Akingbade appeared in 52 games while reaching single-game highs of 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Matt Kinney
Sports Information Director
Office: 903-233-3735