Three Lady Bear Basketball Players Sign with Four-Year Schools

After finding great success on the basketball court in Summit and helping to lead Southwest to an MACCC Conference Runners-Up and NJCAA Region 23 Runners-Up finish this past season, three Lady Bear Basketball players will get the chance to shine once again - this time on the four-year level.

Morgan Sullivan (Lane College), Kennedee Shelton (Arkansas-Monticello) and Michaela Payton (Mobile) all recently made it be known where they will continue their academic and athletic careers. Sullivan, Shelton and Payton are just three from this year’s class who have signed with more expected at a later date.

For Sullivan, she is anxiously awaiting the chance to show what she can do on the next level from the post position.

“I’m very excited for the next chapter,” she said. “I’m ready to see what it is going to look like. I’m really excited to see how much better I can get as time goes on.”

Sullivan adds that she chose to sign with the Dragons despite receiving interest from a pair of in-state schools in Millsaps and Mississippi University for Women.”

She started all 30 games this past season and averaged 5.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

Like Sullivan, Michaela Payton was a post player from Moss Point who stepped her game up after arriving at Southwest. Even though she is signing close to home, she knows that it will not be easy, yet she is anxious for what awaits her at Mobile.

“I’m really ready to get out there and I’m ready for something new. I’m ready for the new challenges,” Payton said.

Another factor that worked in the favor of Payton was re-connecting with former Lady Bear teammate Courtney Bradford who signed with the Lady Rams last year.

“She gave me a heads up about how they play and practice,” she said. “She said that they run a lot but running isn’t a problem for me.”

Payton started in all 30 games and averaged 9.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and a team-high 0.8 blocks per game last season for the Lady Bears.

It may have been for only a year, but Shelton was another player who made the most of her time in Summit as the Shreveport, LA-native stepped into a leading role for the Lady Bears. She too started all 30 games and averaged team highs in points per game at 13.2, 3-point percentage at 31.2, steals per game at 2.1 and rebounds per game at 6.5.

She adds that she is excited to get the opportunity to continue playing and that she chose to sign with the Cotton Blossoms despite receiving interest from a number of other schools including Mississippi College, Midwestern State and Christian Brothers.

Shelton said that she was thankful for her time in Summit and explains that she had to make a bit of a change to her game.

“I’m very thankful that I came here,” she said. “I didn’t get to play guard much before this, I was a post player. This was my first year of being a guard and I know at the next level it is a position that I know that I will be playing. I had to adjust to everything and I feel like it was needed coming from where I came from.”

Shelton adds that even though she was at Southwest for only a year, she is happy to have built strong relationships with her teammates.

“I didn’t think I would get this close to them since it was my only year here,” she said. “But I feel like this team is very together. It is way bigger than just basketball between us.”

Southwest head coach Brent Harris explained that Sullivan, Payton and Shelton all made strong, positive marks with the program and in different ways.

“Kennedee (Shel-ton), obviously was a big part of our offense and had to be a play maker later in the year,” he said. “She is a really good rebounder as well. We were fortunate to get her experience after she transferred in. I think that she is going to a good program. Morgan (Sullivan) was a really solid asset for us in the post. She is always dialed in and she also made some very timely 15-footers for us this year. Michaela (Payton) is a rebounding, defensive nightmare. She knows all of our sets. She can play on the perimeter, she can chase on the perimeter. I think that all three are going to good homes, good situations and can contribute right away.”