COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee Miss Basketball winner and two-time all-state pick during her stellar career at Upperman High School in nearby Baxter, Lashay Davis is coming home to play basketball at Tennessee Tech for coach Sytia Messer.
Davis signed an Ohio Valley Conference grant Friday, officially joining the Golden Eagle program following one season at Western Kentucky University.
“We’re excited about getting Lashay back
home,” said Messer. “She fits in well with the type of
players we have on our team and with our style of play. She’s
a proven player. She has a year of Division I experience against
tough competition. She’s a competitor, and we’re
excited about the opportunity for her to come back here and play in
front of her family and friends.”
Davis will be on the squad in 2010-11, but must sit out the entire
year due to NCAA transfer rules. She can begin play for the Golden
Eagles in the 2011-12 season and will have three years of
eligibility remaining.
“I think it’s to her advantage to sit out a
year,” Messer said. “She’ll have a year to get to
know us and to develop as a player.”
Davis, a 5-6 guard, played in 30 games for the Hilltoppers last
winter, getting the starting nod four times. She averaged 7.4
points and 1.3 rebounds per game while playing an average of
nearly 22 minutes per contest. She also contributed 32 assists and
23 steals in her rookie season.
Davis poured in 19 points against Arkansas in the fifth game of
her collegiate career, hitting 5-for-8 from long range. A month
later, she raised her career-high to 20 points, going 4-for-7 from
outside the arc, in win over Florida Atlantic. She finished with 12
games in double figures, and shot 38.1 percent (40-for-105) from
3-point range to rank fourth in the Sun Belt Conference.
“Lashay can shoot, she can play defense, she’s strong academically,” Messer said. “She represents everything that I would like for our players to represent.”
She was an early signee for WKU in November 2008 after being named Class AA Miss Basketball following her junior campaign. She was a Miss Basketball finalist as a senior, and following the completion of her playing career at Upperman, Davis had her jersey retired by the school.
She was a three-time District 7-AA Most Valuable Player, as well as the Cookeville Herald-Citizen’s Upper Cumberland Player of the Year three times. Davis was also an all-state and all-midstate selection twice.
She scored 2,411 points career points, the second-highest total in school history, and her 16.6 points per game career average is the third-best in Upperman history. She made a school-record 327 steals, ranked third in assists with 428 and her 881 field goals made ranks second all-time.
“We’re looking to get back to winning OVC championships with players like her,” Messer said.
Davis will join a Tech roster in 2010-11 that will also feature six other newcomers to the program in the fall. Already announced as joining the Golden Eagle roster are Briana Jordan from Atlanta, Diamond Henderson from Kennesaw, Ga., Molly Heady of Clarkrange, Tenn., Keisha Moore out of Selma, Ala., Candace Parson from Fort Lauderdale, and Brittany Darling from Owens (Ohio) Community College.
