Replacing production in the paint from Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Teaira McCowan will be tough to do, but MSU women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer is filling holes and building a stronger paint for 2019.
It started for Schaefer with the signing of Jessika Carter in last year’s class and the playing time that she put in this year. He also picked up Ole Miss transfer and 6’5 center Promise Taylor who sat out this season. Now, Schaefer is adding another piece to the unit that stands 6’6 and has spent her last two years in junior college.
That player is Yemiyah Morris from Cochise College in Arizona who is visiting Starkville this weekend. Morris announced her commitment to MSU on Saturday night and signed her letter of intent, confirmed by the University on Sunday. She chose the Bulldogs over Arizona State.
Despite her unusual length and height, Morris has flown under the radar during her basketball career. The Las Vegas native had interest from Furman, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, South Florida and Central Florida in high school before signing with Grays Harbor, a junior college in Washington state.
She averaged 12.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.7 blocks coming out of high school before deciding to play for Cochise in Arizona. As a freshman at Cochise last season, Morris averaged 9.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and led the country with 74 blocked shots. She followed that up with a strong sophomore year with 13.9 points, 8.7 rebounds 72 more blocked shots. She was fourth nationally in offensive rebounds, third in field goal percentage at 52 percent and second in blocks.
Her performance this season earned her first-team All-Arizona Community College Athletic Conference and first-team All-Region in Region 1. She helped her team to a Region 1 championship and a trip to two-straight National Championship tournaments. They were 28-4 this season.
The addition of Morris adds to an already strong 2019 class. Schaefer signed the highest ranked class in school history back during November as MSU finished sixth with the five signees they added. The class is led by the nation’s No. 9 player overall in McDonald’s All-American Rickea Jackson and boasts four of the five players ranked inside the ESPN top 100 and as four stars.
Morris adds a shot-blocking and rebounding presence in the paint to go along with Carter and Taylor and will allow the Bulldogs to have even more flexibility on both ends of the floor with a talented group of guards already in tow. MSU will try to defend back-to-back SEC championships after losing four starters for the second straight season.
