Melrose's Doherty to play for WT

Melrose's Cassidy Doherty will stay a Lady Buff next year.

After helping Melrose win the Class 1A state championship in March, the 5-foot-4 point guard has signed a national letter of intent to play next season at West Texas A&M.

"My second-oldest brother played at WT," Doherty said. "I was a seventh-grader his first year, and I always had a dream to play for the Lady Buffs."

CMI file photoAfter helping Melrose capture the Class 1A girls state basketball title in March, senior point guard Cassidy Doherty has signed a national letter of intent to play at West Texas A&M next season.

Doherty, who transferred to Melrose from Des Moines for her senior year when her father took the job as the Buffaloes' boys basketball coach, averaged nearly 20 points a game in helping MHS to a 28-1 record. She also averaged around eight assists and seven steals, and shot 41 percent from 3-point range.

"We're very proud of her," Melrose coach Toby Bostwick said. "She's going to a good school with a good coach (Krista Gerlich)."

Doherty said she was almost headed to McCook (Neb.) Community College before Gerlich got back in on her late.

WT returns its starting point guard from the past season, Doherty said, adding that Gerlich has signed two other point guards.

Doherty played for three years at Des Moines, helping the Lady Demons reach the 1A finals as a freshman. Des Moines lost in the state quarterfinals in each of her next two seasons.

The Lady Buffs beat Tatum 59-51 in overtime in this year's state final. Doherty got her fourth foul late in the half and had to sit out the third quarter, and Tatum erased a double-figure halftime deficit to take the lead, but she played the rest of the way without picking up a foul.

"I knew once we got to overtime, we were the better team and we were going to win," she said.

Bostwick said he doesn't expect Doherty's relatively small stature to be a problem at the college level.

"I don't think anyone can match her heart," he said. "We're going to miss her. She was a great point guard for us, and a great leader."