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Ellison and Moore named NAIA Women's Basketball All-Americans
KANSAS CITY -- Shorter University juniors Kelly
Ellison and Damisha Moore have been named women's basketball
honorable mention All-Americans by the National Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in a release sent out on Wednesday
afternoon.
Ellison, a 5-foot-6 point guard out of Columbus, Ga., who transferred to Shorter after playing her freshman season at NCAA Division I Stetson University, earns her second straight All-America honor after being named an All-American last season.
The 5-foot-7 Cartersville, Ga., native Moore, who came to Shorter after playing two seasons at Atlantic Coast Conference power University of Miami, garnered her first NAIA All-America honor in her first season with the Lady Hawks.
Ellison, who joins former Shorter standout Katarina Martinovic as Shorter's only two-time All-American, again served as the floor general for a Lady Hawk team that won 24 games and made a second straight appearance in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship.
Ellison ranked second on the team in scoring at 10.3 points a game while leading the Lady Hawks in assists (5.4) and steals (2.0) per game. She ranked fifth in the country in total assists (173) while her assist average was seventh-best in the NAIA.
Ellison took care of the basketball -- her 1.7-1 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked No. 23 in nation -- and came to play when her team needed her most.
She nearly posted the program's first triple-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a win over Southern States Athletic Conference rival Emmanuel College, hit the game-winning layup with 1.0 seconds remaining in a 55-53 upset of No. 20 Southern Poly on Valentine's Day and had 17 points, six assists and four rebounds in Shorter's loss to second-seeded Freed-Hardeman in the first round of the national tournament.
Ellison scored double figures in eight of Shorter's last 10 games as the Lady Hawks battled for an at-large bid into the national tournament down the stretch and four times recorded double digit assist totals, including a career-high 15 helpers on the road against conference foe Southern Wesleyan.
Moore was a welcomed addition to the Shorter lineup in 2010-11, battling through preseason knee surgery to develop into one of the Lady Hawks' most productive players.
Moore led the Lady Hawks in scoring and rebounding, putting up 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds a game. She shot just under 50 percent for the season -- her 219 shot attempts were second only to Ellison's 272 -- and knocked down a team-high 44 percent of her 3-point shots.
She led the team with two double-doubles as she dropped 12 points and 11 rebounds on Southern Wesleyan before going for 15 points and 12 rebounds against SSAC East regular season champion Lee University on the road.
Moore reached double figures in 16 of her 25 appearances and poured in a career-high 24 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals against a 20-win Southern Wesleyan team in Central, S.C. She snagged double digit rebounds on three occasions, including the career-best 12 against Lee and 11 in the upset win over Southern Poly.
Southern States Athletic Conference Coach of the Year Vic Mitchell has now coached five NAIA All-Americans: Tremaine Paul was the first Lady Hawk to garner All-America accolades in 2001-02, Martinovic earned the honor in 2007-08 and 2008-09 and Nicole Frechette was an All-America honoree in 2008-09.
This is the second time under Mitchell that Shorter has boasted two All-Americans in the same year.
Continuing the Lady Hawks' incredible academic tradition, Ellison was also honored earlier in the week as an NAIA Scholar-Athlete. Junior Brittney Smith joined Ellison as an NAIA Scholar-Athlete honoree. It is the first such honor for both athletes.
