Kentucky point guard pledges to Lady Mocs

Friday, January 1, 1904

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team picked up its fifth commitment this week, Chelsey Shumpert of Paducah Tilghman High School in Kentucky.

A 5-foot-3 point guard who has been playing on the high school varsity since seventh grade -- "I'm the old person on the team," she joked -- Shumpert averaged 25.4 points per game last season, according to MaxPreps.com. Shumpert said she picked the Lady Mocs over Murray State and several NAIA schools, and she made up her mind about UTC after visiting earlier this month.

"There's great people there, and I have an opportunity to succeed there all four years," she said.

Her coach at the Paducah school, Rod Thomas, said Shumpert is "a phenomenal player and an athletic point guard." She does things, he said, "that you can't coach."

Always an aggressive attacker of the basket, Shumpert added to her game after she suffered a torn ACL during her sophomore year.

"She's played varsity basketball since she was in the seventh grade, and she relied a lot on her quickness, which she still does," Thomas said, "but it was during that sophomore year that she did a lot of shooting, and she came back last year a better shooter."

The Lady Mocs have been doing team workouts for two weeks and begin practice Monday.