North Carolina women's basketball guard Paris Kea was selected No. 25 overall in the 2019 WNBA Draft on Wednesday night.
The redshirt senior was taken by the Indiana Fever with the first pick in the third round. She was the lone Tar Heel selected in the WNBA draft.
Kea, who began her college career at Vanderbilt, transferred to North Carolina after the 2014-2015 season and sat out the following year.
In her redshirt sophomore season, she led UNC in points (17.2) and assists per game (4.1). The 5-foot-9 guard ranked first in the ACC in minutes per game at 36.2 and ranked fourth in field goals made with 221.
As a junior, Kea was even better, averaging 19.4 points per game, the 10th-best total in program history. Kea totaled 30 or more points four different times and managed to still average 4.8 assists per game. Her efforts were rewarded with a First Team All-ACC selection.
Kea poured in 30 points and added 10 assists to lead UNC to a win over then-No. 1 Notre Dame on Jan. 27. A week later, the redshirt senior guard led the Tar Heels to another top-10 win over then-No. 7 N.C. State with a 17-point, three-assist performance.
The Greensboro, N.C., native ended the season averaging a team-high 17.3 points, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals and earned First Team All-ACC honors for a second consecutive season. More importantly, Kea led UNC to an 18-15 record and its first NCAA Tournament bid since the 2014-2015 season. The Tar Heels earned the No. 9 seed in the Greensboro Regional and were defeated by No. 8 seed California, 92-72.
Kea finished her career with the second-highest scoring average in program history (18.0) and is just one of two players to score 1,000 points in her first two seasons in Chapel Hill.
