Crystal Kelly (born September 15, 1986) is a professional basketball player who played in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA).

High school

Kelly played for Sacred Heart Academy in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, where she was named a WBCA All-American. In addition, Kelly was named the 2004 Kentucky Miss Basketball. She participated in the 2004 WBCA High School All-America Game where she scored four points.

College

Kelly attended college at

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

, where she was a standout basketball player. She broke the WKU women's basketball program record for career rebounds, and earned a place in the top 25 career scorers in NCAA Division I women's basketball history by scoring over 2,600 points. In her senior year, she led the nation with a 64.8% field goal shooting percentage. Kelly was named to the all-

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

team during each of her four collegiate seasons, and was named the 2008 Sun Belt Player of the Year in her senior season. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in public relations in 2008.

Western Kentucky statistics

Source

Professional

Following her collegiate career, Kelly was selected in the third round (31st overall) in the

2008 WNBA Draft The WNBA draft is the league's annual process for determining which Women's National Basketball Association teams receive the rights to negotiate with players entering the league. The 2008 draft was held on April 9. A lottery was held on October ...

by the

Houston Comets The Houston Comets were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Houston. Formed in 1997, the team was one of the original eight WNBA teams and won the first four championships of the league's existence. They are one of two ...

. The Comets waived Kelly in May 2008, but a few days later she was signed to the

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Mona ...

. Kelly averaged 7 points per game in 16 minutes per game as a backup to starting forward

Rebekkah Brunson Rebekkah Brunson (born December 11, 1981) is an American basketball coach, currently an assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Brunson is a former forward for the Lynx and is the only playe ...

during the 2008 regular season. Then an injury to Brunson allowed Kelly to become a starter and a notable scorer during the WNBA Playoffs. In the Monarchs' victory over the

San Antonio Silver Stars The San Antonio Stars were a professional basketball team based in San Antonio, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the Utah Starzz before the ...

in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, Kelly led all scorers with 19 points. Following her WNBA career, Kelly was hired as an assistant coach for the Women's Basketball team at Tennessee Tech, then later at Bellarmine University. Following these five years of coaching, Kelly was hired as Xavier University's Women's Basketball Assistant Coach.

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