While this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament won’t take place in North Texas like last year’s Final Four, there will be plenty of local representation when the tournament begins later this week.
Nearly three dozen former Dallas-area high school girls basketball stars earned a spot in this season’s Big Dance with the hopes of reaching the Final Four in Cleveland in April.
Players like Baylor’s Sarah Andrews and North Carolina’s Deja Kelly headline the list, as the two are names circulating with the WNBA draft approaching.
Here are 10 local players to watch in this year’s women’s tournament.
Sarah Andrews, Baylor
Class: Senior
Position: Guard
High school: Irving MacArthur
For yet another season down in Waco, Andrews remains a key part of Baylor’s success, starting all 31 games this year. She is the team’s second leading scorer with 11.1 points per game while averaging 3.9 assists and 2.4 rebounds. Andrews earned All-Big 12 honors for the third time in her career this season when she was selected to the conference’s second team.
Andrews has proven to be worth the hype she received in high school as the state’s No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2020 and the No. 7 player in the nation, per ESPN’s HoopGurlz. As a senior at Irving MacArthur, she averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game.
Destiny Jackson, Rice
Class: Fifth-year
Position: Guard
High school: Mansfield Timberview
Jackson helped lead Rice to only its fourth NCAA tournament appearance ever and first since 2019. The Owls are seeking just their second NCAA tournament win ever and first since 2000. In order to do so, they’ll lean on fifth-year Destiny Jackson, who is the only Rice player to start all 33 games for her team this year. She averages 11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
Jackson reached two UIL state championship games while at Timberview. In order to lead her team to a tournament win, she’ll have to overcome the reigning national champions in three-seed LSU.
Kiara Jackson, UNLV
Class: Junior
Position: Guard
High school: South Grand Prairie
A few weeks after Jackson’s alma mater reached the UIL Class 6A state title game like it did during her senior season, she will compete on a big stage of her own, returning to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year.
Jackson has started all 22 games for UNLV and averages a team-high 31.1 minutes per game during which she scores 11.4 points on average in addition to 4.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds.
UNLV faces seven-seed Creighton in the first round and will seek to win a tournament game for the first time since 1991. Jackson has performed well in high-stakes games in her career, averaging 19 points in South Grand Prairie’s final four playoff wins her senior season.
Taylor Jones, Texas
Class: Senior
Position: Forward
High school: Dallas Christian
Jones has developed into one of the key starters on Texas’ Big 12 championship roster this season, as she ranks third on the team in scoring with 14 points per game and averages a team-high 7.2 rebounds.
Jones earned All-Big-12 honors for her standout senior season that landed Texas the No. 5 ranking in the nation in the latest AP poll.
In high school, Jones was a two-time TAPPS state champion at Dallas Christian and a five-star recruit as the No. 42 player in the nation in her class, according to ESPN. She scored over 2,000 career points and recorded a double-double in every game her senior season. She began her college career at Oregon State before transferring to Texas before last season.
Deja Kelly, North Carolina
Class: Senior
Position: Guard
High school: Duncanville
The 2020 SportsDay girls basketball player of the year led Duncanville to a state title in her senior season — the most recent title Duncanville won before claiming the 2024 UIL 6A state title in San Antonio a few weeks ago.
In college, she has continued to rack up honors, being selected to the All-ACC first team for the third consecutive year. She leads North Carolina — an eight-seed in the tournament — with 16.7 points per game, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
Kendall McGruder, Fairfield
Class: Junior:
Position: Guard
High school: South Grand Prairie
Fairfield captured the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title to punch its ticket to the tournament and claim a 13-seed. McGruder will join former teammate Jackson in the tournament, as she looks to lead her program to its first tournament win ever.
McGruder transferred to the Connecticut school from UNT where she played her first two seasons. This season, she has started about half of her team’s games and averages 8.2 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Nevaeh Parkinson, UC Irvine
Class: Senior
Position: Center
High school: John Paul II, Parish Episcopal
The 2022-23 Big West Sixth Player of the Year has continued to provide a spark for UC Irvine off the bench, playing in all 31 games and averaging 8.3 points and 6.6 rebounds.
UC Irvine defeated UC Davis 53-39 Saturday to win the Big West Conference Tournament and end its NCAA tournament drought, reaching the Big Dance for the first time since 1995 where it fell in the first round to Stanford. As a 13-seed, it will take on Gonzaga.
Parkinson split her time in high school between two private school programs but was a part of Parish Episcopal’s state-championship-winning team in 2017-18 before transferring to John Paul II.
Endyia Rogers, Texas A&M
Class: Graduate student
Position: Guard
High school: Bishop Lynch
After playing four seasons in the Pac-12 (two at USC and two at Oregon), Rogers returned to Texas to play her final year at Texas A&M. There, she has made an immediate impact, averaging 12.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists.
Texas A&M had reached the NCAA tournament for 15 consecutive years before that streak came to an end in 2022. This appearance, where it is seeded as an 11-seed and will face six-seed Nebraska, is its first since 2021.
Rogers was named SportsDay’s player of the year in 2019 after leading girls basketball powerhouse Bishop Lynch to two state titles. She had 40 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in the 81-62 victory against The Village School from Houston in the TAPPS 6A state championship game her senior season. She also won Texas Gatorade Player of the Year that season.
Jewel Spear, Tennessee
Class: Senior
Position: Guard
High school: The Colony
Spear was known for her dangerous 3-point shot in high school, and it’s a skill she’s further developed in college and will carry with her into this month’s NCAA tournament.
After leading the area with 116 3-pointers as a junior at The Colony, Spear became one of the best 3-point shooters at Wake Forest, hitting over 90 shots from deep range in back-to-back seasons and earning All-ACC honors twice.
She was rated one of the top transfers in the country this offseason and joined Tennessee, where she has fit in seamlessly, averaging 13.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting a team-high 37.1% from deep.
Nevaeh Tot, Oklahoma
Class: Senior
Position: Guard
High school: John Paul II, Parish Episcopal
Tot’s road was similar to Parkinson’s, as the two transferred from Parish Episcopal to John Paul II after winning the state title in 2018. She scored over 2,000 points in her high school career and averaged 10.7 points, 7.1 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 steals during her senior season.
As a starter for Oklahoma, she is averaging 6.9 points, 4.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds. Oklahoma, a five-seed, will match up with Florida Gulf Coast in the first round. Tot appeared in both of OU’s tournament games last year.
Others to watch
Amina Muhammad, Texas: As just a sophomore, the former DeSoto star has started 20 games for the nation’s No. 5 team, averaging 6.4 points and 4.5 rebounds. Muhammad led DeSoto to back-to-back state titles in 2021 and 2022.
Jazzy Owens-Barnett, Rice: An alum of reigning back-to-back Class 5A champion Frisco Liberty, Owens-Barnett comes off the bench for Rice but has delivered key minutes, averaging 7.3 points per game.
Amarachi Kimpson, UNLV: The Little Elm alum is just a freshman but already averaging 9.5 points per game for a UNLV team back in the NCAA tournament. She is also shooting 42.9% from 3-point range.
Julianna LaMendola, Indiana: The area’s reigning player of the year and 2023 Gatorade basketball state player of the year has appeared in 27 games for Indiana and scored 50 points in her freshman season. LaMendola led Coppell to its first state tournament in school history last year.
Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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