Ole Miss women’s basketball junior forward Shakira Austin has been named an Honorable Mention member of the WBCA Coaches All-America team, the association announced Saturday morning. Austin was named a Region 2 finalist for the All-America team back on March 24, and was one of 52 total honorees today alongside 42 Honorable Mention members and the 10 finalists of the Coaches All-America team.
Austin – a 6-5 forward from Fredericksburg, Virginia – has been dominant in her first season as a Rebel after transferring from Maryland, putting the SEC on notice with her ferocious play on both ends of the court. For her efforts, she became the first Rebel to earn First-Team All-SEC honors since Tia Faleru did so in 2014-15.
On the season, the Lisa Leslie Award Top-10 list member averaged 18.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 1.6 steals, 1.3 assists and shot 51.9 percent overall and 75.9 percent from the free throw line. In total, she was in double digit scoring in 26 of 27 games played, which included 13 double-doubles, 13 games with 20 points or more, 14 games with double-digit rebounds and 14 games with multiple blocks.
Austin was even more lethal in SEC season, during which she recorded seven 20-point games and eight double-doubles. Austin was rarely cold in 2020-21, but she had two particularly torrid spans of games, including a stretch from Dec. 15 to Jan. 7 where she became the first Rebel to score 20 or more in four straight since 2009-10 (Bianca Thomas), and from Jan. 31 to Feb. 21 when she became the first Rebel to record five straight double-doubles in SEC games since All-American and current assistant coach Armintie Herrington did so in seven straight during the 2006-07 Elite Eight season. Austin has showed up for the big games in superb fashion, nearly averaging a double-double at 18.1 points and 9.8 boards while shooting 51.3 percent vs. nine ranked opponents.
She is currently the only active SEC player with 1,000 career points (1,171), 700 career rebounds (787) and 150 career blocks (178), and she was also the only player in the conference to finish the regular season within the top-15 in the SEC in field goal percentage, scoring, blocks, rebounding, steals and free throw shooting.
Austin shined spectacularly in the WNIT as well, being named All-Memphis Regional and All-Tournament after notching three double-doubles, three 20-point games and a tournament stat line of 20.4 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, 1.2 steals, 1.2 assists and a field goal/free throw slash of .514/.833.
Visit www.wbca.org/recognize/ to see a list of past WBCA Coaches’ All-America teams.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
