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Sunday, November 3, 2019 31 Northwest Arkansas Basketball consecutive state basketball finals, winning two and earning MVP honors once and helping the Lady Hillbillies to a record of 99-7. … Earned state titles in the shot put, high jump and 400 meters and honored as Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Female Athlete of the Year as a senior. … Topped 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in her career at Arkansas despite being played by injuries. … Earned the Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice. BRENDA RHODES SCHOOL: Wilmar HEIGHT: 5-5 THE CREDENTIALS: Earned MVP honors of the Arkansas High School Coaches' Asso- ciation All-Star game. … Holds single-game state tournament scoring record with 55 in the Arkansas 5-on-5 era. … Led the Ra- zorbacks with 70 steals, ranked second in assists and averaged 9.6 points per game as a freshman but was ruled academically ineligible and eventually played two seasons at Arkansas-Monticello, helping the Cotton Blossoms to an NAIA national runner-up finish. Became part of only two teams in UAM history at the time to be inducted in the school's sports Hall of Fame. TYLER SCAIFE SCHOOL: Little Rock Hall HEIGHT: 5-9 THE CREDENTIALS: Earned first-team all-Big Ten honors as a senior and second-team honors as a junior. Fin- ished second in career scoring at Rutgers with 2,233 points. … Rated as the top overall point guard in the nation and ninth-rated recruit over- all by ESPNU HoopGul- rz … Named MVP of the Women's Basket- ball Coaches Associa- tion High School All-America Game at the Final Four in New Orleans and participated in the McDonald's All-American Game. … Led Little Rock Hall to a 30-2 record and the Class 6A state championship as a senior … Averaged 23.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.1 steals per game as a senior and earned MVP honors in the state finals. WENDY SCHOLTENS-WOOD SCHOOL: Fort Smith Southside HEIGHT: 6-4 THE CREDENTIALS: Helped the Con- federettes to a 95-5 record and three con- secutive state titles along with two overall state basketball cham- pionships and went on to a standout career at Vanderbilt. … Earned three state tournament MVP honors. … Earned all-state honors in vol- leyball and led Con- federettes to the state tournament. … Named Parade All-American as a high school senior after averaging more than 25 points and 10 rebounds per game and Arkansas Athlete of the Decade for the 1980s. … Broke 19 school records at Vanderbilt and still holds 15. … Ranks second at Vanderbilt in ca- reer scoring with 2,602 points and is the career leader in rebounds with 1,272. … Earned All-Southeastern Conference three times, SEC Freshman of the Year and Kodak All-American as a senior. …. Led SEC in scoring and rebounding each of her final three seasons at Vanderbilt. … Inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. …Played professional basketball for one season in Japan. … Became first fe- male player at Vanderbilt to have her jersey retired. AMBER (NICHOLAS) SHIREY SCHOOL: Newark HEIGHT: 5-5 THE CREDENTIALS: Named to the Ar- kansas Gazette Super Team and state Player of the Year as a senior at Newark. … Helped lead Newark to a pair of state titles. … Was a two-time All-SWC selection for the Razorbacks .. Was career leader in assists at Arkansas prior to the 2002 season. … Closed her career as one of two players in school history to rank on four career total lists (points, 6th; rebounds, 10th; steals, 2nd; assists, 1st). … Earned MVP of the 1991 SWC tournament, leading Arkansas to the first non-Texas title. …Was only UA women's played to finished with 1,000 points and 500 assists. ERICA (SMITH) TAYLOR SCHOOL: Palestine-Wheatley HEIGHT: 5-10 THE CREDENTIALS: Earned Parade All-American honors a n d h e l p e d P a l e s - tine-Wheatley to a state title in 2001. … Named A r k a n s a s D e m o - crat-Gazette Miss Basketball. … Named Western Athletic Con- ference Freshman of the Year at Louisiana Tech in 2002 and two a two-time All-WAC se- lection. … Led Pales- tine-Wheatley to back-to-back state finals and a state title as a senior. … Drafted in the second round of the WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics in 2005. … Played four seasons in the WNBA, averaging just over 11 points per game in her career. SHEKINNA STRICKLEN SCHOOL: Morrilton HEIGHT: 6-2 THE CREDENTIALS: Helped lead Morrilton to a state championship in 2006 and named MVP. … Played for the Tennessee Lady Vols and was named USBWA Freshman of the Year. … Selected second overall in the WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm and played for multiple teams since 2012. … Named all-state and all-conference all four years of her high school career… Started in all 120 games played and totaled 2,690 points, 1,400 rebounds, 726 assists, 474 steals and 605 blocked shots…Had 45 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists in the 2008 state finals her senior year…Twice named Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year and earned McDonald's All-American honors. … Earned Parade magazine and USA Today All-American honors. … Earned All-SEC and All-American honors at Tennessee and was named SEC Player of the Year. …Finished with 1,882 points and 905 rebounds … Ver- satile played all five positions in her college career. … won 3-point shooting contest prior to WNBA All-Star Game. SONJA TATE SCHOOL: West Memphis HEIGHT: 5-7 THE CREDENTIALS: Inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. … Holds Arkansas State school record for most boys points by a male or female with 2,312. .. Set single-season scoring record with 820 and owns the top-five single-game scoring performances in school history. … Remains only ASU women's player to score 40 or more points in a game, which she did five times including a 50-point effort against Louisiana-Lafayette during the 1992-93 season. … Her single-season marks of 95 3-pointers and 327 rebounds are also school records. … Was lone ASU player to ever record a quadruple-double with 29 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals against Mississippi Valley State on Jan. 27, 1993. … Earned All-American honors in track and field at ASU and remains in the top 10 in six events in school history … Set a school record of 5,247 points in the heptathlon in 1994, which remains No. 2 overall today. … Played for the Minne- sota Lynx of the WNBA, leading the teams in minutes played, assists and steals and also played professionally in France, Russia, Spain and the American Basketball League. TINA WEBB SCHOOL: Bryant HEIGHT: 5-9 THE CREDENTIALS: Earned All-American honors four times at Arkansas-Monticello. … Named NAIA National Player of the Year in 1990. … Still holds numerous career, season and game scoring marks for scoring and rebounding at UAM. … Set the NAIA national career rebounding record, averag- ing 13.9 per game. … Scored 3,412 points and at the time of her induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, that ranked fifth all-time in women's college basketball at any level. … Averaged 27.1 points per game in her career. Played basketball pro- fessionally in Japan, Brazil, Switzerland and Belgium. … Led Bryant to their first state championship in 1982 and earned all-state honors three times. … Holds record for most steals (202) in a season in the Arkan- sas 5-on-5 era. TRACY WEBB-RICE SCHOOL: Batesville HEIGHT: 5-9 THE CREDENTIALS: Helped lead Arkansas to four consecutive 20- win seasons, first NCAA Tournament appearance and WNIT champion- ships. … Finished her career holding most of the Razorbacks' steal and assist records. … First Arkansas player to earn first-team All-Southwest Conference honors. … CHRISTYN WILLIAMS SCHOOL: Central Arkansas Christian HEIGHT: 5-11 THE CREDENTIALS: Ranks as the sec- ond all-time leading scorer in the Arkansas 5-on-5 era with 3,500 points and sits first (1,084) and third (965) and eighth (859) in the single-season list. …. Finished with the top all-time career scoring average (24.8) in the Arkansas girls' 5-on-5 era and sec- ond in career records (1,261). … Earned the Naismith Award as a senior at Central Arkansas Christian awarded to the top high school girls' basketball player in the country and was also became first female athlete from Arkansas to be named Gatorade Na- tional Player of the Year. … Led CAC to a state title as a senior, scoring 42 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and adding 3 steals and 2 blocked shots in the state finals and averaged 39 points per game in 3 state tour- nament games. … Claimed MVP honors in the 2018 girls' McDonald's All-American game, scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds to lead her West team to victory. … Earned American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year honors at Connecticut in 2019. TAMIKA (KURSH) WILLIAMS SCHOOL: Fort Smith Northside HEIGHT: 6-1 THE CREDENTIALS: Led the Lady Bears to state championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002. … Scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the final game of her Northside career. … Kursh (2002) is the lone Northside basketball player to earn Mc- Donald's All-American Game honors. … She averaged 14.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game her senior season. … Went on to play college basketball at Louisiana Tech, where injuries hindered her playing career. The Top 25 list was compiled in balloting by: Mike Neighbors, Carla Crowder, Rick- ey Smith, Joe Foley, Louis Whorton, Gary Blair, John Hutchcraft, Sherry White, Amber Shirey, Brian Boyer, Sharon Morgan, Garry Crowder, Paul Boyd, Walter Woodie. File Photo/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Ozark's Sarah Pfeifer tries to get around Highland's Ginger Murphy on March 9, 2002, in Pine Bluff for the Class 3A State Championship. Scaife File Photo/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Morrilton's Shekinna Stricklen (left) plays against Siloam Springs during a 2006 game. Scholtens- Wood Courtesy Photo/University of Arkansas Amber (Nicholas) Shirey helped Newark to a pair of state titles and was a two-time All-SWC selection for the Razorbacks. File Photo/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Fort Smith Northside's Tamika Kursh (45) drives to the basket against West Memphis in 2002 during the Class 4A Girls State Basketball Championship. Taylor Webb-Rice v Continued from preceding page