| Penguins Sign Junior College Recruit, Add Southern Miss Transfer |
| Tuesday, May 30 2006 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown, Ohio – The Youngstown State women's basketball program has signed Heather Karner (St. Louis, Mo.) to a National Letter of Intent and has added Southern Miss transfer Kelsey Gurganas (Indianapolis, Ind.) to the 2006-07 roster, Head Coach Tisha Hill announced on Tuesday. Karner, a 5-foot-10 guard, has two years of eligibility remaining and is eligible immediately. Gurganas must sit out the 2006-07 season to fulfill NCAA transfer requirements, but will have two years of eligibility left beginning with the 2007-08 season. Karner, who played at Western Nebraska Community College, led her squad to a 29-2 record, the Region IX Championship and an eighth-place finish at the national tournament. She averaged a team-best 9.7 points per game and collected 3.3 rebounds per game. During her freshman year at Midland Junior College, Karner averaged 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds per game. At Lutheran South High School, Karner averaged 20.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 steals per game and was an all-state selection as a senior. Karner was also recruited by Illinois, Missouri and Toledo coming out of high school. "Heather has the capability of putting up numbers for us in our league," Hill said. "She brings the ability to score at her position, and that's what we needed. I'm extremely excited about these two additions to our program." Gurganas, a 5-foot-10 guard from Perry Meridian High School, appeared in all 29 games for Southern Miss last season and averaged 1.2 points and 1.1 assists per game. During her freshman season, Gurganas appeared in 27 games with 24 starts. She averaged 3.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game and dished out 59 assists. At Perry Meridian, Gurganas was a three-year letterwinner and posted 9.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game as a senior. An all-conference selection, Gurganas also accumulated Honorable-Mention all-state honors as a senior. "We are very excited to add Kelsey to our program," Hill said. "She possesses a great attitude and work ethic and gets things done for us on both ends of the floor. She will certainly increase the competitiveness of practice." Gurganas and Karner join Ta-myra Davis (Akron, Ohio), Anjalia Lyons (Maple Heights, Ohio) and Kaitlyn March (Rochester, Pa) in the 2006-07 recruiting class. |