IRVING, TEXAS (April 10, 2008)Conference USA had three players selected in the 2008 WNBA Draft presented by adidas Wednesday afternoon at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Tampa, Fla.
UTEP was one of eight schools in the country to have multiple players chosen. Eight-time national champion Tennessee led the way with five selections, followed by LSU with three. The Miners, along with perennial national powers Maryland, North Carolina, Rutgers, Texas A&M and UCONN, all had two players drafted.
Miner seniors Natasha Lacy and Izabela Piekarska became the first players in program history to be selected. Lacy went as the 29th overall pick to the Detroit Shock in the second round, while Piekarska landed with the Sacramento Monarchs at No. 40 in the third round. Additionally, Rice's Valerya Berezhysnka was chosen by the Detroit Shock with the 42nd pick during the 3rd Round of the draft, giving Conference USA a total of three players tabbed to the league.
Berezhynska was the third Owl to be selected in the WNBA Draft. Rice's Marla Brumfield and Kirra Jordan were both taken in 2000 by the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm, respectively.
Lacy finished with more than 1,300 points, 750 rebounds, 600 assists and 300 steals in four years (three at TCU and one at UTEP). The AP Honorable Mention All-American played a large role in the Miners' record-setting 28-4 campaign. She finished eighth in the country in steals per game, setting the single-season school record with 108 total thefts in the process. The C-USA Newcomer of the Year was second on the squad in assists (156) and scoring (13.0 ppg), and third in rebounding (5.9 rpg) and total blocks (20).
Lacy, the second-team all-league honoree, was second in C-USA in steals, fifth in assists, sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio, 10th in defensive rebounding, 12th in scoring and 17th in overall rebounding.
Piekarska leaves UTEP as the program's all-time leading scorer and the only player in school history to register more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 blocked shots and 100 assists. Moreover, she is second all-time in blocked shots and third in rebounds and in three-pointers made.
The second-team All-C-USA honoree paced the Miners in blocked shots and 3-point percentage, while ranking second in rebounding and third in scoring. The native of Warsaw, Poland, also was second in the conference in blocked shots, and 15th in both rebounding and scoring.
Berezhynska participated in the WNBA Pre-Draft Camp last weekend at the University of Tampa. She headlined the Owls and C-USA, averaging 18.4 points and 12.6 rebounds per game in league play.
Berezhynska won a trio of C-USA Player of the Week honors and recorded the program's first career triple-double with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a nationally televised game at Tulane (Feb. 14)
The Ukraine native recorded double figures in 20 of her 23 appearances on the season and reached the 20-point mark eight times, including four of her last five regular season games. She tallied 10 double-doubles and ended her career 10th on Rice's scoring list with 1,076 points.
C-USA also had three players drafted in 2005 and had a league-best four selected in 2000.
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