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Stanley Joins FGCU

ByMiami Suns Basketball

FORT MYERS, Fla. – FGCU women’s basketball head coach Karl Smesko has announced the signing of Aaliyah Stanley, a 5-6 guard from Eastern Michigan University. The rising sophomore will have three years of eligibility remaining. She will have the sit out the 2020-21 season pending the NCAA’s transfer vote, which is expected to take place later this month.

In 18 games this past year, Stanley averaged 12.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.1 assists. She made 37-for-109 (.339) from long distance and finished as the team’s second leading scorer in her rookie campaign.

“We are really excited about adding Aaliyah to our program,” Smesko said. “She is a really talented guard who loves the game. She is exceptionally quick and is a good 3-point shooter.”

Stanley, who prepped at Oxbridge Academy in Boynton Beach, produced double-digit scoring efforts in 11 of her 18 contests, including a season-high 24 against Southeast Missouri on Nov. 19 and Illinois-Chicago on Dec. 18. She also dropped 20 on Wichita State Dec. 7.

While at Oxbridge Academy, Stanley was the 142nd ranked player in the nation in the class of 2019 per ProspectsNation.com. The four-star prospect compiled over 1,000 career points and led her team to a state championship in 2018, where she scored a career-high 32 points in the title game. Individually, she was a Florida Association of Basketball Coaches (FABC) All-State selection and was named the FABC Class 5A Co-Player of the Year in 2018.

“FGCU’s campus is outstanding,” Stanley said of her decision to transfer to FGCU, where she intends to major in kinesiology. “They have both a great coaching staff and great girls that I have the opportunity to play with. Plus, it’s closer to my hometown, so my parents can view a college game for the first time.”

Stanley becomes the sixth signee for next season, joining: Tishara “TK” Morehouse, a 5-3 JUCO transfer guard from Western Nebraska Community College; Andrea Cecil, a 6-1 graduate transfer guard/forward from BGSU; Maddie Antenucci, a 5-10 guard from Indian Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio; Seneca Hackley, a 5-9 guard from Saint Mary’s High School in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Tomia Johnson, a 5-6 point guard from Grandview High School in Colorado Springs, Colo.