Lady Demons add another pair to 2022-23 squad

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State women’s basketball made another offseason splash with the addition of two more players joining the 2022-23 team.

On Thursday, head coach Anna Nimz announced the addition of two-time NAIA All-American Kelsey Thaxton from LSU-Alexandria and the third Division I transfer in this signing class Joelle Johnson from Northern Kentucky.

The former McDonald’s All-American nominee from Negreet High School, Thaxton etched her name in the record books across the past four seasons as a General.

The four-time, first-team all-conference player holds the school records for points per game (20.4), scoring in a season (551), 3-point field goals made in a season (101) and 3-point shooting percentage (39.6).

She also holds the single-game record with 42 points scored, set during her sophomore season, by draining 10 3-pointers in a win against Texas College, also a school record.

A pure scorer, Thaxton has eclipsed 1,800 points in her collegiate career after scoring more than 3,500 in high school including 1,000 during her senior season. She is a career 40 percent shooter from the field with a 36 percent effort from beyond the arc.

She has averaged more than 14.9 points per game in each of her four seasons including the 16.3 per game that earned her Red River Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 2018-19.

A Louisville native, Johnson began her collegiate career at Georgia State before spending this past season at Northern Kentucky and has appeared in more than 65 games the past three years.

The 5-foot-11 forward has the ability to score from all levels, shooting nearly 30 percent from beyond the arc and over 40 percent from the field, while averaging a tick shy of three rebounds per game.

In her career-best performance against Appalachian State, Johnson scored 17 points, going 7-for-8 from the field and making all three attempts from 3-point land.