Published: May 05, 2008 12:08 am            

ISU women’s hoops recruit added to Indiana All-Star team

TERRE HAUTE — Better late than never.

One of Indiana State’s seven incoming freshmen, 6-foot Deja Mattox is a late addition to the Indiana All-Star team.

The Maconaquah senior replaces Brownsburg forward Lauren Taylor, who was required to be at the New Mexico campus for summer school during the week of All-Stars.

Mattox was planning to be in Terre Haute for the first summer session but has changed her plans after getting the news Wednesday during school.

“The [ISU] coaching staff was really excited for me,” Mattox said. “They said I should go, have fun and don’t expect me to come to summer school.”

The All-Star Games are June 13 at Conseco Fieldhouse against Kentucky and June 15 at Louisville, Ky. Mattox averaged 22 points and 7.8 rebounds as a senior.

“I think she should have been on it the first time around,” ISU coach Jim Wiedie said Sunday. “She played well at the tryouts from what we heard.”

Mattox is the first ISU recruit to make the All-Star team since Anne Thatcher in 2003. Melanie Boeglin was an All-Star for Terre Haute South in 2002, and Kristen Weddle, who was a Toledo recruit before transferring to ISU, was an All-Star in 2001.

“We’re very excited for Deja, and we’re excited for our pogram,” Wiedie added. “Any time you have a kid get selected, it represents your program well.”

This is an occasion that you don’t pass up, he added.

“We’d love to have her here, especially with six other incoming freshmen, we’d like to have them together,” Wiedie said. “But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her. Plus it reflects positively back on our program.”

Mattox looks forward to playing with Miss Basketball Brittany Rayburn of Attica after having that opportunity last year with the Junior All-Stars. Mattox averaged 25.1 points as a junior. She said that she and Rayburn, a Purdue recruit, worked well together on the court.

“My first AAU team with The Family was pretty stacked, but as far as All-Star teams, this is the best team I’ll have played on,” Mattox said.

With Mattox one of seven incoming freshman for ISU, Wiedie expects to have at least 14 players on scholarship. The NCAA allows women’s basketball programs to have 15 scholarship players.

“We may be at full capacity,” Wiedie said. “There’s an outside chance we’ll get a transfer. We’ll have at least seven freshmen, a lot of new faces.

“We’ve never had that many [in Wiedie’s tenure],” he said. “We’ve been at 13 but never had 13 healthy. We’ve never dressed that many. It’s also a new challenge, it will be hard to keep that many kids happy. We think every kid we have is going to be ready to get on the court. It should be a pretty competitive fall and hopefully a pretty competitive early preseason.”

n Another All-Star alternate needed — Mattox was informed Wednesday that she was the first alternate for the team. Apparently, Butler recruit Kaley May of Avon is the second alternate, and she’ll be replacing Northwest High School’s 5-9 guard Larretha Draughon, Mattox said Sunday.

According to a report in the Muncie Star-Press, Draughon has been charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery and three counts of criminal confinement, all Class B felonies.

According to the report, police said they foiled a robbery at Long John Silver’s on West 16th Street in Indianapolis on April 23.

        

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