Indiana University Women’s Basketball Player Sharncee Currie-Jelks is planning a return to team in August after Pregnancy, Maternity Absence
Indiana Women’s Basketball Forward Sharnecce Currie-Jelks missed most of the 2023-24 season while tending to an undisclosed personal issue. She shed more light on that situation on social media last week, posting photos with a baby on Instagram. A source confirmed to The Daily Hoosier that the baby is Currie-Jelks’, and the personal matter she dealt with last season was her pregnancy. The source added that Currie-Jelks is planning to return to the court in August, and that her mother, Stephanie, is moving to Bloomington to help care for the baby.
IU Head Coach Teri Moren stated in late January that Currie-Jelks was dealing with “some personal stuff” and didn’t want to elaborate further. Moren also said the staff hadn’t discussed a potential redshirt for her. She’s listed as a Junior on IU’s roster, which would indicate a redshirt not happening, but a program spokesperson couldn’t comment on the situation. The Forward played in just three games for IU last season as a sophomore after transferring in from UT Martin. Currie-Jelks last appeared in Indiana’s December 18 game against Evansville. She totaled only nine minutes across the three games and recorded two points and one rebound.
Currie-Jelks would give the Hoosiers an additional frontcourt veteran along with Lilly Meister and Tennessee transfer Karoline Striplin, along with freshmen Sydney Fenn and Faith Wiseman. The 6-foot-2 Currie-Jelks averaged 15.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks in 29.4 minutes per game for the Skyhawks as a Freshman in 2022-23. She shot 53.9 percent from the field, 23.8 percent from beyond the arc and 73.8 percent from the free throw line. Currie-Jelks was named the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year and tabbed to the All-OVC first team. She earned a pair of OVC Player of the Week selections and set a school record with nine OVC Freshman of the Week honors.
Bloomington South Kicker Bryce Taylor Commits to Indiana University Football for 2025
Bryce Taylor wasted no time when the hometown school opened the door. Offered a week ago by Indiana, the Bloomington South H.S. product announced his commitment to the Hoosiers last week. He’s rated the No. 24 kicker and a 5-star in the 2025 class by Kohl’s. He’s also rated the No. 1 kicker in Indiana in his class by some outlets. Taylor also had offers from Air Force and Army, and he’d also recently visited Texas A&M and Ohio State, among others. Indiana currently has two scholarship kickers on their 2024 roster — redshirt senior Derek McCormick, and redshirt freshman Nicolas Radicic. Taylor is the 11th commit in Indiana’s 2025 class.
Indiana University Softball adds Ohio State Transfer Melina Wilkinson
Indiana Softball Head Coach Shonda Stanton has announced the signing of transfer Melina Wilkison to the program. Wilkison, a Greensburg, Ind. native, returns to her home state after spending three seasons at Ohio State. Wilkison played her freshman and sophomore seasons in 2022 and 2023 before redshirting in 2024 due to injury. She will have two years of eligibility remaining for her time at Indiana. Softball America ranked her in the top 50 available portal prospects in the 2024 cycle. At Ohio State, Wilkison enjoyed some highly successful seasons.
As a Sophomore in 2023, she started all 53 games in right field and led the team in batting average (.373), RBI (44), runs scored (50), hits (66), home runs (11), slugging percentage (.718), on-base percentage (.439) and stolen bases (13). In Big Ten play alone, she hit .311 at the plate with a .737 slugging percentage. She also hit a home run in four consecutive games between March 27 to April 2. Her strong play earned her NFCA Second Team All-Region and First Team All-Big Ten honors in 2023. As a freshman in 2022, she played in 49 games and started 45 times. She had the third-best batting average on the team, hitting .342 at the plate with 34 runs scored, 11 doubles, four home runs and 13 RBI. She also led the team with 17 multi-hit games and in postseason play hit .429 with a .714 slugging percentage.
She was named NFCA Third Team All-Region and to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and Big Ten All-Tournament Team in 2022. Wilkison was a standout at Greensburg Community High School in her prep career. She was named the MVP of the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference as a senior in 2021 and was named to the All-Conference team multiple times. She set the program’s single-season triples record with 10 and earned All-District honors her senior year and was a third team All-Indiana selection as a sophomore. She played club ball for the Beverly Bandits and also helped lead Greensburg to three-straight sectional titles in basketball, too.
Top Girls Underclassmen on Display at Indiana All Star Basketball Classic at Anderson University
The Top High School Girls Basketball players from all over the State of Indiana were on display at the 16th annual Indiana All-Star Basketball Classic at the O.C. Lewis Gymnasium at Anderson University in Anderson University on Saturday. There were four games total with two Junior Games featuring the class of 2025 and two Futures Games featuring the Classes of 2026 and 2027. The Event is in its 16 year and sponsored by Excel H Sports and Streamed on the Indiana Sports Network. Steve Stremming is the executive director and co-founder of the event, and it has been held at Anderson University the last 11 years after the first five at New Castle High School and honors all four classes in Indiana High School Basketball. Whitney Combs of North Judson San-Pierre, Mike Armstrong of Frankin, LaTrice Crawford of Purdue Poly Tech, Justin Bennett of Tri-West, Kaley May of Danville and Travis Connor of Princeton served as coaches during Saturday’s games.
The teams were divided into Red and White Jersey’s with High School rules in place with Four Eight Minute Quarters. In the First Juniors Game the White beat the Red 63-46. Madison Sonsini of Greenfield Central scored 23 points and was named the Co-MVP along with Anna Caskey of Indianapolis Bishop Chatard with 19 points and 16 rebounds. Emma Ancelet of Danville was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the White Team. Ma’Kalea Drake of Kokomo led the red team in scoring with 14 points. Kila Foster of Bremen scored 13 points and was named the Fellowship of Chirstian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the Red team.
In the Second Juniors Game the Red beat the White 51-38. Emma Simpson of Parke Heritage scored 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and was named the games MVP. Jaylin Davidson of North Central (Farmersburg) added 13 points and Sydney Kessler of Eastside added 10 points and was named the Fellowship of Chirstian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the Red team. Libby Blythe of Evansville North led the White Team with 22 points and Brynlee Clark of Northview was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the White Team.
In the First Futures Game the White beat the Red 68-51. Elliot Leffler of Indianapolis Roncalli scored 16 points, Rylee Cannan of Evansville Memorial was named the Co-MVP with 14 points. Peyton Duvall and Aniyah Anthony of Tri-West scored 10 points apiece. Anthony was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the White Team. Olivia Jones of Pendelton Heights scored 7 points along with 12 rebounds and was named the Co-MVP. Ariah Scott of Anderson pulled down 10 rebounds. Alonna Devine of Pike scored 12 points to led the Red Team. Lilly Slyvester of Yorktown scored 10 points and Nya Dame of Princeton was named the Fellowship of Chirstian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the Red team.
In the Second Futures Game the White held off the Red 54-53. Maryrose Felling of Triton Central scored 14 points and was named Co-MVP along with Indiah Hutchinson of Hammond Central who scored 10 points. Lillie Graves of McCutcheon scored 7 points and was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the White Team. Mollie Ernests of Jennings County led the Red Team with 16 points. Katie Reed of Washington scored 11 points along with 12 rebounds and was named the Fellowship of Chirstian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner for the Red team. Felling is Granddaughter of Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Ron Felling. The Game came down to the wire as the White threw the ball down the court with 1.7 seconds remaining and were able to run out the clock to preserve the win.
Top Boys Underclassmen on Display at Indiana All Star Basketball Classic at Anderson University
The Top High School Boys Basketball players from all over the State of Indiana were on display at the 16th annual Indiana All-Star Basketball Classic at the O.C. Lewis Gymnasium at Anderson University in Anderson University on Friday. There were four games total with two Junior Games featuring the class of 2025 and two Futures Games featuring the Classes of 2026 and 2027. The Event is in its 16 year and sponsored by Excel H Sports and Streamed on the Indiana Sports Network. Steve Stremming is the executive director and co-founder of the event, and it has been held at Anderson University the last 11 years after the first five at New Castle High School and honors all four classes in Indiana High School Basketball. Matt Luce of Wapahani, Derrick Lewis of Cardinal Ritter in Indianapolis, Norm Anderson of Liberty Christian and Mark McFarland of Perry Merdian served as coaches during Friday’s games.
The teams were divided into Red and White Jersey’s with High School rules in place with Four Eight Minute Quarters. In the first Juniors game the Read beat the White 76-60 Javon Warfield of Anderson was the game MVP with 16 Points, Max McComb of University scored 14, Josiah Ball of Maconquah added 13, Jack Mckinsey of Greensburg scored 12 and Cole Henry of South Ripley who was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes award winner for the red team added 10 points. Jack Turner of Southport, Josiah Ball of Wes-Del and Ethan Edwards of Clay City all scored 10 points each and Cade Kaiser of Batesville was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner of the White Team.
In the second Juniors Game the Red beat the White 100-81 as Jaymon Townsend of Marion scored 27 points and was named the Game MVP. Towsend wowed the crowd with a 360 and a couple of Ally Oop slams. Brody Judge of Lapel added 18 points, Jaylen Barbara of South Bend Riley 13 Preston Sims of Northwestern scored 13 and Hudson Horvath of Park Tudor scored 10 points. Tate Whitehead of Southridge was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes award winner for the Red Team. KJ Mark of Park Tudor scored 21 points, Brandon King of Jimtown scored 15 points and was named the Mental Attitude Award Winner for the White Team. Jace Jenkins of Princeton scored 11 points, Bode Judge of Lapel added 10 points and Samuel White of Northeastern pulled down 11 rebounds.
In the first futures game the White beat the Red 102-72. Ethan Roseman from Indianapolis Bishop Chatard scored 26 points and was named the Game MVP. Devin Bolden from Cardinal Ritter in Indianapolis added 24 point was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner. Edwin Holmes of Princeton 20 scored points, Austin Ford of Brebeuf Jesuit scored 13 points and Kendrick Martin of Liberty Christian added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Tywaine Fuller of Liberty Christian led the Red Team with 19 Points, Collin Lewis from Anderson added 10 points and Elexander Lewis of Indianapolis Tech scored 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Chase Devine of Bremen was named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award Winner.
In the second futures game the White beat Red 84-80. Bryce Mathis of Perry Merdian scored 20 points and won the MVP, Camden Bell of Wapahani added 18 points, Eli Sego of Triton Central scored 13 points and won the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude Award. Mason Miller of New Castle scored 13 points and Bryce Wilcox of Southwood scored 9 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. TJ English of Liberty Christian scored 28 points; Drew Matelic of Speedway scored 13 points. Brennan Miller of Lawrence North scored 11 points and pulled down 19 rebounds. Devin Craig of Lapel added 11 points and Cade Claxton of Shelbyville won the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Mental Attitude award.
Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream at Gainbridge Fieldhouse
To start a three-game homestand, the Indiana Fever (4-10) beat the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night, 91-84, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and finished its 2024 Commissioner’s Cup record at 3-2. Indiana’s 91 points marked a season-high in points scored in a game in 2024. Four Fever players scored in double figures, led by center Aliyah Boston’s 27-point and season-high 13-rebound double-double, which marked her third double-double of the season. Boston’s 27 points tied a career-high in scoring and her 17 points in the first half tied a career-high in points scored in either half of a regular season game. Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell followed with a season-high 24-point performance, two rebounds, two assists and two steals to go along with a 3-point field goal at the end of the first half to give Indiana its largest halftime lead this season, 59-44. The 59 points scored by Indiana was the highest scoring half of the season for the Fever. On Thursday, Mitchell also passed Candice Dupree on the Fever all-time 2-point field goals list, ending the night in second place with 701 made from inside the arc.
Fever forward Katie Lou Samuelson came off the bench and went 3-of-4 on 3-point field goal shooting ending the night with 11 points, three rebounds and one assist. Fever forward NaLyssa Smith added 10 points and five rebounds, while rookie guard Caitlin Clark tallied seven points, six assists, four rebounds and two blocks in the win. Former Indiana University Standout Grace Berger did not play. Indiana had its highest scoring quarter of the season at the end of the first and led, 33-24. Indiana outscored Atlanta in paint points, 42-30, and fast break points, 11-2. Indiana shot 18-of-19 from the free throw line.
Atlanta (5-6) finished 1-4 in this year’s Commissioner’s Cup as Dream guard Rhyne Howard led in scoring with a season-high 26 points, as well as two rebounds, two steals and one assist. Forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus came off the bench to finish with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists. Guards Allisha Gray and Haley Jones added 12 and 10 points each, respectively. Despite the loss, Atlanta outscored Indiana in bench points 30-17.
For more local news . . . Check out our archived episodes of What’s Happenin’ and Talkin’ Sports with Nick Jenkinson