Tyra Grant selected in WNBA draft by defending champions

Associated Press

SECAUCUS, N.J.

The defending champion Phoenix Mercury selected Penn State guard Tyra Grant and Oklahoma guard-forward Nyeshia Stevenson in the WNBA draft Thursday.

The Mercury took Grant, the former Ursuline High standout and Ms. Ohio honoree, in the second round, at No. 24 overall in the draft, and Stevenson in the third round at No. 36 overall.

Grant led Penn State in scoring this season, averaging 19 points in 30 games. She became just the fourth player in Penn State women’s basketball history to reach 2,000 career points.

Stevenson averaged 14 points and four rebounds in 33 games this season and helped lead the Sooners to the Final Four.

Less than two days after helping UConn win its second straight national championship, Tina Charles was selected first by the Connecticut Sun.

Charles averaged more than 18 points and nine rebounds while leading UConn to an NCAA Division I-record 78 straight victories over the past two seasons.

The Sun traded with the Minnesota Lynx to get Charles, who joins Sue Bird (2002) and Diana Taurasi (2004) as the only UConn players taken with the top overall pick. The three former Huskies as well as Candace Parker (2007) are the only four players to win a national championship and be taken first in the draft the same year.

The Sun also acquired Charles’ former teammate, Renee Montgomery, from the Lynx for Monica Wright, the second pick in the draft, and former University of Minnesota star Lindsay Whalen.

The Lynx drafted Nebraska’s Kelsey Griffin with the third pick, then dealt her to the Sun minutes later for Connecticut’s first- and second-round picks next year.

Chicago drafted former Rutgers guard Epiphanny Prince with the fourth pick.

WNBA teams open training camp April 25. Exhibition games begin April 30 and the league’s 14th season will start May 15.