Seattle Storm WNBA Draft: Horston, local product Loville among 4 picks
Apr 10, 2023, 9:59 PM | Updated: Apr 11, 2023, 10:19 pm
The Seattle Storm made four selections in Monday’s WNBA Draft as they prepare for their first season following the retirement of legendary point guard Sue Bird and departure of former WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart in free agency to the New York Liberty.
With the ninth overall selection, the Storm took Tennessee’s Jordan Horston, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard.
Horston, a first-team All-SEC choice last season by the conference’s coaches, was second in scoring (15.6 points per game) for the Lady Vols and led the team in rebounds (7.1), assists (3.3), steals (1.6) and blocks (1.1) per game in 2022-23.
WNBA DRAFT PROFILE ⬇️
Jordan Horston upped her game each season playing for @LadyVol_Hoops @ladylynn22_ is gritty and throughout her career the 2x Gold Medalist has excelled at scoring, rebounding and distributing the rock #WNBADraft pic.twitter.com/USGvLRkZOv
— WNBA (@WNBA) April 7, 2023
In the second round, Seattle used the 18th overall pick on Madi Williams, a 5-11 small forward from Oklahoma, and took 6-4 South Florida power forward Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu at 22nd overall.
Williams averaged 15.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists as a senior last season to earn her second straight unanimous All-Big 12 first team selection.
No commercial break was stopping us from seeing Madi's name on the screen!
Here's the moment that @madi_wms became a member of the Seattle Storm ⛈️ pic.twitter.com/HH1Cki3DR6
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_WBBall) April 11, 2023
Fankam Mendjiadeu scored 16.5 points while adding 12.3 rebounds per game as a senior for the Bulls in 2022-23.
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu doesn't give up 💪 pic.twitter.com/cZ2HlJMVhR
— espnW (@espnW) January 13, 2022
In the third and final round of the draft, the Seattle Storm picked 5-11 Arizona point guard Jade Loville at No. 33 overall. Loville, a local product from Skyline High School in Sammamish, made the 2022 All-Pac 12 team after averaging 9.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game for the Wildcats.
.@JadeLoville is COOKIN. 👩🍳
She’s got 12 points in 1Q to help give @SunDevilWBB a 5-point lead.
📺 Pac-12 Network
📱 https://t.co/7jVOxyiRdZ#ForksUp | #Pac12WBB pic.twitter.com/eLBpi4qUAE— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) February 12, 2022
The No. 1 overall pick in the draft was made by the Indiana Fever, who selected South Carolina star Aliyah Boston.
The 2023 Seattle Storm season will begin on May 20 at Climate Pledge Arena against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
