KANSAS CITY, Mo. – JoHanna Beathard, Michaela Kay and Taylor LaCour of Oklahoma City University women's basketball team reeled in 2019 NAIA women's basketball scholar-athlete honors the league announced Monday.
Beathard, Kay and LaCour receive the honor for the first time. The Stars (32-4, 20-2 SAC) collected the Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season championship and advanced to the NAIA Division I Tournament in 2018-19, playing in the Fab Four tonight against Our Lady of the Lake (Texas).
LaCour has a 3.62 grade-point average while majoring in biomedical sciences. LaCour, a senior from Georgetown, Texas, has started in all 68 games during her career for OCU. This season LaCour was the third leading scorer scoring at an 8.5 points per game, grabbed 4.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists LaCour scored a career high 23 points on Nov. 10, 2018 at Southwestern Assemblies of God Classic against LSU Shreveport (La.).
Kay, a senior from Spokane, Wash., has a 3.63 GPA while studying business marketing. She has started all 36 games this season for the Stars and averaged 7.2 points, 3.7 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals a game. Kay lead the team with 132 total assists, was second on the team with 64 made 3-pointers and scored a season high 15 points against Texas College on Nov. 9, 2018.
Beathard boasts a 3.94 GPA while studying exercise and sport science. Beathard, a junior from Fletcher, Okla., played in 26 games this season averaging 2.8 points and 3.0 rebounds a game, while shooting 59.6 percent from the floor. Beathard scored a season high 12 points twice this season. First on Dec. 15, 2018 vs. Bacone when she also had eight rebounds, three steals, three blocks and an assist, then on Jan. 31, 2019 at Bacone she secured her second career double-double when she snagged 10 rebounds to go with her 12 points.
In order to be nominated by an institution's head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status to qualify for this honor.
