Air Force Guard Transfers to Nebraska

Lincoln -- The Nebraska women's basketball team added a seventh new face to its 2003-04 roster with the addition of junior LaToya Howell from Air Force, Coach Connie Yori announced Monday.

LaToya Howell

Howell, a 5-4 guard from Chicago, Ill., chose to transfer after spending her freshman and sophomore seasons at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. She will sit out as a redshirt in 2003-04 and will have two years of eligibility remaining starting with the 2004-05 season.

"We're excited about adding LaToya to our team because she brings an exciting style of basketball to our program," Yori said. "She has good quickness and knows how to get to the basket. She is very competitive and has extremely quick hands. A year from now, she'll bring an added maturity to our squad, along with her ability to play either guard position."

Howell led Air Force and ranked among the Mountain West Conference leaders in scoring (17.4 points per game), assists (7.0 apg) and steals (3.2 spg) in 2002-03. She produced a school-record 38-point performance against Minnesota, when she connected on 10-of-18 shots from the field and 17-of-18 free throw attempts.

Howell also set a school record with 119 assists last year and ranked among Falcon rebounding leaders. She ended the year with three double-doubles, including 23 points and 11 assists against Sacramento State, 19 points and 10 assists against Winthrop and 15 points and 10 assists against Cal State Fullerton.

"I'm pretty excited about becoming a Husker," Howell said. "It feels like a really great fit. I'm just excited to have a new start and play in a pretty tough conference."

Along with being chosen as a two-time Mountain West Conference Player of the Week last season, Howell set a school single-game record with 15 assists in a win over UNLV on Jan. 30. For the season, Howell hit nearly 80 percent (110-138) of her free throws, 34.1 percent (14-41) of her three-point attempts and 37.2 percent (86-231) of her overall field goal attempts.

Howell led all Mountain West Conference freshmen and ranked second on the team in scoring with 10.0 points per game. She set a school single-season record with 90 steals, including a single-game record eight steals against UNLV. She also finished just one assist shy of the school single-season record, ending the year with 109 assists. Howell erupted for a team season-high 30 points against San Diego State to help her earn honorable-mention All-Mountain West Conference honors.

Howell chose to attend Air Force after completing a solid high school career Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, Ill. A four-year letterwinner for Coach Lori Esser, Howell amassed more than 1,000 points in her career to rank as the second-leading scorer in school history. She was a three-year all-area and all-conference selection and earned honorable-mention all-state honors after the 1999-2000 season. Howell was also a three-year letterwinner in soccer and earned all-sectional honors on two occasions. After completing her high school career, Howell attended the U.S. Air Force Academy's prep school during the 2000-01 academic year. She led the Academy team to a school-record 19 victories and produced 48 team and individual records along the way. Howell was named the team's most valuable player and earned MVP honors at the Husky Classic and the New Mexico Junior College Invitational.