Walker-Kimbrough taken 6th by Mystics

One of the most decorated female athletes in Western Pennsylvania history officially is moving on to women’s basketball’s highest level.

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, an Aliquippa native and former Hopewell High School basketball, track and volleyball star, was selected by the Washington Mystics with the sixth overall pick in the WNBA draft Thursday night at Samsung 837 in New York. Guard Kelsey Plum of Washington went first to the San Antonio Stars.

The list of Walker-Kimbrough’s high school accolades is a long one. This sharpshooting guard was named the Post-Gazette Female Athlete of the Year as a junior and senior, won a combined five WPIAL championships in the three sports she played. She also was named Pennsylvania’s Gatorade Player of the Year after averaging 28 points, 10 rebounds and nearly 7 steals per game as a senior.

Additionally, Walker-Kimbrough was a first-team allstate selection at the Class 3A level in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Her 2,427 career points, a Hopewell record, are 12th-most in WPIAL history.

Ranked the No. 43 player in the class of 2013 by ESPN, Walker-Kimbrough opted to attend Maryland, where her basketball career continued to flourish.

In four seasons with the Terrapins, she scored 2,156 points, good for the No. 4 spot on Maryland’s all-time scoring list. She also established herself as one of the top 3-point shooters in Division I, with a .459 career 3-point percentage, a Maryland and Big Ten Conference record.

She was named an all-Big Ten first-team member as a sophomore, junio, and senior, and also was selected as a third-team AP All-American as a junior and senior.

Walker-Kimbrough helped Maryland to two Final Four appearances, a combined 12717 record and a combined six Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament championships in her four seasons in College Park.

WNBA training camps open April 23. The Mystics’ first game is May 14 against the San Antonio Stars.