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Bradley Central grad breaks ground for Kentucky women’s basketball program

AP file photo by Bryan Woolston / Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard, who starred in basketball at Bradley Central High School before making her name as a college player with the Wildcats, will be reunited next season with two of her former Tennessee Xtreme AAU teammates, Treasure Hunt and Jazmine Massengill.
AP file photo by Bryan Woolston / Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard, who starred in basketball at Bradley Central High School before making her name as a college player with the Wildcats, will be reunited next season with two of her former Tennessee Xtreme AAU teammates, Treasure Hunt and Jazmine Massengill. AP file photo by Bryan Woolston / Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard, who starred in basketball at Bradley Central High School before making her name as a college player with the Wildcats, will be reunited next season with two of her former Tennessee Xtreme AAU teammates, Treasure Hunt and Jazmine Massengill.

By DOUG FEINBERG / The Associated Press 5 min read

Rhyne Howard is rewriting the record books for the University of Kentucky women’s basketball program, and her junior season in Lexington has yet to tip off.

Now the 6-foot-2 guard is the first player from the program to be honored as a preseason All-American by The Associated Press. Howard, from Bradley Central High School and Cleveland, Tennessee, was a unanimous choice by the 30-member national media panel on the team released Thursday.

The Wildcats standout was joined in the five-player lineup by sophomore Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, who was also a unanimous pick, and seniors Dana Evans of Louisville, Aari McDonald of Arizona and Michaela Onyenwere of UCLA.

All five players were honored this past spring on the AP All-America teams. Howard was a first-team selection, Boston, Evans and McDonald made the second team and Onyenwere was on the third team. However, none was on the preseason All-America team last fall, with Thursday marking the first time since the 2006-07 season there were no returning players on the squad.

Howard averaged 23.4 points and 6.5 rebounds and made 38.2% of her 3-point attempts last season, when she became the first player in program history to score 25 or more points in five straight games.