BATON ROUGE — Ashley Thomas of Stone Mountain, Ga., and Quianna Chaney of Baton Rouge, each signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball for the LSU Lady Tigers, LSU head coach Sue Gunter announced on Wednesday.
Thomas, a 6-0 forward from Stephenson High School, averaged 14.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.0 assists per game as a junior for coach Dennis Watkins and led her team to its first final four appearance in the state tournament. She was named a Nike All-American as well as the Atlanta-Journal Constitution DeKalb County Player of the Year and first-team All-State.
“Ashley’s strength is her versatility,” LSU associated coach Pokey Chatman said. “She is a forward with the skills of a guard. She is equally effective facing the basket or playing with her back to the basket. I think she’ll flourish in our system.”
As a sophomore, Thomas was named Adidas All-American and averaged 14.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
Thomas waited to sign this week on Nov. 18 in celebration of her 18th birthday, is rated as high as No. 35 in the nation by All Games Sports.
Chaney, a 5-11 guard from Southern Lab High School, averaged 25.0 points per game as a junior for coach Henry Combs and helped her team win the state title last season. She was named to several teams, including all-state, all-metro and Sweet 16 All-Tournament, all three of which named her MVP.
“The most impressive thing about Quianna is her ability to shoot the ball deep,” Chatman said. “She has accurate range from about 24 feet. If you couple that with her mid-range game and her ability to get to the basket, it makes her that much more difficult for opponents to defend. She will definitely compliment our system as well as our other players.”
Both All Games Sports and Roundball Journal Scouting Services rank Chaney as the 10th best overall player in the nation. She is also between No. 3 and No. 6 in the country at shooting guard.