The University of Kentucky women?s basketball team signed two players to a national letter-of-intent, Coach Mickie DeMoss announced today. Carly Ormerod, a 5-8 point guard from Louisville?s Sacred Heart Academy and Shana Andrus (pronounced SHAY-na AN-drus), a 6-0 guard/forward of Barberton High School in Barberton, Ohio, have signed to play for the Wildcats next season.
Ormerod, ranked as one of the Top 100 seniors by the Blue Star Index recruiting service and a front runner for Kentucky Miss Basketball honors, holds the distinction of being the only player to be named Most Valuable Player at the state tournament as a freshman, and the only player to be named MVP twice in her career (she also was named MVP as a junior).
Ormerod averaged 12.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.8 steals and 2.5 assists last season for Sacred Heart, the three-time defending state champion, under the leadership of Coach Donna Moir. In her three-year career, Ormerod has scored 1,330 points and is the school?s all-time assists leader with 426. She has led the Valkyries to an impressive 111-3 overall record during her prep career.
?Carly is such a sound guard and rarely makes a mistake,? DeMoss said. ?She?s led her team to three state titles, she?s been the MVP twice of the state tournament and she just knows how to win. She has the intangibles of a great player and she brings a winning attitude to our program. She will be a tremendous addition to our backcourt.?
Street & Smith?s basketball magazine named Ormerod an honorable-mention All-American two straight years (2003, 2004) and she was named first team All-State by the Louisville Courier-Journal (2003, 2004), the Lexington Herald-Leader (2004) and The Associated Press (2003). Ormerod also was named to the Student Sports All-America team as a sophomore and junior and participated in the Nike All-America camp last season. She chose Kentucky over Western Kentucky.
Andrus averaged 16.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 3.4 steals in her junior season at BHS under Coach Pam Davis. She is a member of the The Plain Dealer?s elite Best of the Best all-star team and was selected Player of the Year in Summit County in 2004. She led the Magics to a 25-2 overall record last season and a spot in the Division I state semifinals.
?Standing at 6-0, Shana has great size and is a versatile guard,? DeMoss said. ?She will be able to handle, slash and shoot from three-point range,? DeMoss said. ?She is productive on both ends of the floor and we are extremely excited to have her as part of our Wildcat family.?
Andrus was a Nike All-America camp attendee in 2004 and also was named Area Player of the Year in 2004. She was named to first team All-Region (2004) and Division I-A All-State second team (2004).
Andrus chose Kentucky over Louisville and Kansas.
The early signing period ends Wednesday, Nov. 17.
