By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
Shanell Law used to be a silent benchwarmer her freshman year. Now she is a First Team All-West Coast Conference member and the leading scorer last season.
Or how about Shandrika Lee? A former softball player who didn’t touch a basketball until her freshman year of high school, Lee now is the Waves’ starting point guard and team captain.
These two veteran leaders are ready to make big things happen for the Pepperdine women’s basketball team which went 22-8 last season.
Law, a junior forward from South Central, had a breakthrough season last year and plans on continuing to be a huge offensive threat for the Waves.
“Last year she was unbelievable,” junior forward Shannon Mayberry said. “She stepped up her role and met the challenge. It’s exciting to see what she’ll do this year.”
During the 2002-2003 contest, Law led the team in scoring with an average of 9.9 points a game. She was second on the team in steals and will go down in the books for her game-winning buzzer shot against Santa Clara that clinched the WCC championship for her team.
“She established herself as a go-to player as a sophomore,” assistant coach Jody Wynn said. “She’s going to need to continue to step up on offense and get even better defensively. She’s gotten the experience she needed to make this a great junior season.”
She is known for her athleticism and shooting skills.
“She’s a tough match-up at the guard spot,” assistant coach Derek Wynn said. “She has a great shooting range and her pull-up jumper is gold.”
But it’s more than just her athletic prowess that makes Law vital to the Waves’ squad.
“She’s a great competitor and brings that competitive edge to the floor,” teammate Lee said. “She’s intimidating on the court, that’s what I like about her.”
Lee carries herself with a ‘refuse to lose’ mentality that the team needs, according to Jody Wynn.
Law said she is a different player than the one who came to Pepperdine three years ago.
“My first year here I didn’t say a word,” Law said. “My teammates called me Mute. I didn’t say anything on the court, off the court. Now I’m way more vocal.”
Law began her Pepperdine career playing minimally as a freshman. Now she averages more than 25 minutes a game and basketball is a huge part of her life.
“I started playing basketball because I had nothing else to do,” Law said. “At my house we had a basketball and a football, and I didn’t have anyone to pass the football with so I started shooting. I didn’t always think I was going to play basketball in college. I wasn’t going to go to college. You could say I was taking the wrong path.
“Meeting my first high school coach turned me around. She instilled in me the idea that I shouldn’t expect anything less than the best.”
This attitude will undoubtedly carry over into her performance this season. She is currently sidelined with a stress fracture to her ankle and has yet to practice or play this school year.
“It’s been three months and I know I’m not in good shape,” Law said. “I’m getting antsy. I haven’t played once with my entire team and I’m a little nervous about how I’ll gel with them.”
Law hopes to play Nov. 21 when the Waves host Stanford in their season-opener.
Upon returning, Law plans on taking the Waves to the next level with their first post-season win.
“Last year was not good enough,” Law said. “The WCC championship is not enough for me. I want to go past the first round of NCAA. Sure, I want to win conference, but I want to go beyond. I’ve got two of those WCC things and I need to go further this year.”
Lee is also looking for a NCAA game win to culminate a successful career in the orange and blue. The 5-foot-6-inch point guard returns from a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury that benched her last December to lead the Pepperdine team as a senior. According to coaches, Lee was en route to an All-American season when she was injured.
“It was pretty tough sitting out,” Lee said. “I always wanted to be out there helping my team. I’m an active person.”
Before her injury she had been the Waves’ leading scorer, averaging 17.6 points per game. She was shooting 50 percent from the field and hitting 45 percent from behind the three-point line. She was also averaging 83 percent from the charity stripe.
Lee took over starting point guard midway through her rookie season and has been running the show for the Waves ever since. This year the responsibility will be back on her shoulders.
“Shandrika is very important to our team,” Derek Wynn said. “She has the majority of the ball-handling duties and has to be a leader on the floor and get other people involved. She has the ability to put a lot of pressure on the opposing team’s offense.”
Lee knows that she will be called upon to lead the young Pepperdine team that includes five new players.
“This year I see myself as a leader,” Lee said. “My coaches have a lot of expectations for me. Also, since it’s my last year, I want to get to the next level and be able to play where I left off before my injury.”
Her speed and quickness are two assets that make No. 25 such a crowd-pleasing player, but teammates and coaches alike echo that Lee’s greatest strength is her work ethic.
“She’s not human,” Law said. “It is amazing. She goes beyond expectations, beyond limits. She had a torn ACL and you would still find her in the gym. She has a work ethic that is out of this world. It motivates others to work hard, because we see the great results she’s gotten.”
Lee is known as a perfectionist. This carries beyond the gym into all other aspects of her life.
“Basketball has taught me a lot,” Lee said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and who I am. When I graduate I want to try to play basketball professionally, but I also want to go to medical school and be a pediatrician. If my career was to end tomorrow I have other plans for my life.”
First things first. Lee and Law join together in leading Pepperdine into a highly-anticipated year of basketball that begins with a non-conference match-up versus Stanford Nov. 21.
From there, they don’t plan on stopping until they get their first NCAA tournament win.
Let the hoops begin.
November 06, 2003