K-State guard Shalee Lehning was selected with the 25 overall selection in the second round of the 2009 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream on Thursday afternoon at the WNBA’s annual draft event in Secaucus, N.J.
Lehning becomes the sixth player in school history to be selected during the WNBA Draft and the eighth player overall to become a part of the league.
“We are extremely proud of Shalee and are so excited about her selection as the 25 pick in the WNBA Draft,” said K-State head coach Deb Patterson. “She has a tremendous opportunity to impact a team in Atlanta that needs a point guard to lead the franchise to a new level of competitiveness. Shalee is tremendous at maximizing the abilities of those she competes with.”
Atlanta enters its second year of existence as a franchise in the WNBA. The Dream finished with a 4-30 record in its debut season in 2008 and owned the first pick of the 2009 WNBA Draft. The Dream selected forward and two-time All-American Angel McCoughtry from Louisville with the first overall pick and Jessica Morrow of Baylor with the 27th overall selection and the first pick of the third round.
Lehning received Associated Press All-America honorable mention and was also named to the Lowe’s All-Senior All-America first team at the conclusion of the 2008-09 season. The two-time All-Big 12 first team choice was a candidate for a number of national All-American honors including: a candidate for the Wade Trophy, a State Farm/WBCA All-America finalist, a finalist for the Naismith Trophy, a finalist for the Wooden Award, a finalist for the Lieberman Award and a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.
The product of Sublette, Kan., garnered CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America third team honors during the 2008-09 season, was a CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine All-District VII first team choice and earned her third straight Academic All-Big 12 first team citation.
The 2009 All-Big 12 first team selection finished her senior season as the Wildcats’ third-leading scorer at 10.7 points per game, the team’s top rebounder at 7.0 per game and the Big 12 leader and second in the nation in assists per game at 7.6 per contest. She is the first player in school history to record consecutive 200 point, 200 rebound and 200 assist seasons.
Her 229 assists this season set a school record for assists in a season and set the Big 12 record for assists by a senior. She became the third player in Big 12 history to record consecutive 200 assist seasons.
Lehning registered three triple-doubles during the 2008-09 season to set the Big 12 and school record for triple-doubles in a season and owns five for her career, which is tied for third in NCAA history for triple-doubles.
She finished her career ranked first in school history and second in Big 12 history for career assists with 800, ranked first in school history for career minutes played with 4,271, ranked fourth in school history for career rebounds with 914 and 19th for career points with 1,189. She is the first player in Big 12 history to record 1,000 career points, 900 career rebounds and 800 career assists.
Lehning is the eighth guard in school history to register 200 points in every season of her career and her final career point total is the 11th-highest by a guard in school history.