March 3, 2009

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - - Senior guard Paris Leonard (Memphis, Tenn./Wooddale HS) was named to the C-USA All-Conference Second Team it was announced by the league office Tuesday. Leonard becomes the first Tiger since Victoria Crawford (2004-05) to earn all-conference honors.

Leonard enters in to this week's Conference USA women's basketball championship with 1,365 career points, good enough for 14th all-time in the Memphis record book. She also ranks third in school history with 160 three point field goals made and is ninth all-time with 193 career steals.

This is the second honor of the season for Leonard from the league office, as she was named a C-USA Player of the Week back on Dec. 1st after helping Memphis to a 3-0 week, including a win of the 24th Annual Piggly Wiggly Classic and scoring her 1,000th career point.

This is the third second career post-season honor for Leonard from C-USA. As a freshman at the end of the 2006 season, she was named the C-USA Sixth Player of the Year.

Leonard leads Memphis with 16.6 points per game and is second on the team with 62 steals. She also leads Memphis with 59 three-point field goals made and is fourth on the squad with 4.2 rebounds per night. So far this season, she has scored 20 or more points 12 times, including each of the last two games when she scored 21 points a night.

Leonard is the daughter of Sylvia and Quentin Jones and Efren Smith. She will graduate from Memphis in May with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in computer studies and sport and leisure science.

She is just the fifth Tiger to earn second team all-conference honors, joining Keetha Matthews (1996), LaTonya Johnson (1997), Kitty Allen (1997) and Shannon Hamp (2002).