Ashley Battle

Battle is an only child to a single mother. She started playing basketball at an early age with her cousins. When she was in fifth grade at Manchester Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was the only girl on the boys' basketball team. While playing in a school tournament, a few Amateur Athletic Union coaches saw Battle and soon recruited her to play for them. During the AAU tournaments, Battle met and became friends with Maria Conlon and Diana Taurasi.

During her high school years, she was looking to get away from Pittsburgh, so she decided to attend The Linsly School, a boarding school in Wheeling, West Virginia that was strong academically. Linsly was known for academics and not basketball, a reputation Battle helped change. In her junior season, the team went undefeated. Battle set school records in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and set the trend with more good female basketball players coming to the school to play. Battle was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored three points.

Battle was a member of the USA Women's U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. The event was held in July 2000, when the USA team defeated Cuba to win the championship. Battle helped the team win all five games, scoring 5.4 points per game.

Battle's number 1 choice for college was Stanford University. Stanford wanted Battle to come for her visit in the spring of her senior year in high school. However, Battle wanted to make a decision and sign her commitment letter during the early signing period in the fall of her senior year so that meant Stanford was not an option. She narrowed her choices to Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Connecticut. Battle's mom preferred Duke as basketball was on the rise, the education was great, and it was within driving distance from Pittsburgh. Battle had a tough time deciding between UConn and Duke. Her AAU friends Maria Conlon and Diana Taurasi had already committed to UConn so she decided to follow them there. Battle's freshman year at UConn started great. She consistently got playing time until she injured her elbow in a game against Miami. Since it was only the fifth game of the season she was granted a red-shirt. In 2002 the Huskies went undefeated and won the National Championship. They would go on to also win the 2003 and 2004 Championships. During the 2003 season, Battle earned the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award. She graduated from UConn with a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Economics.

Battle was selected by the Seattle Storm at No. 25 in the 2005 WNBA draft, but played in only two games that year. After the 2005 season, she was signed by the New York Liberty. In 2006, Battle played in thirty-three games and developed a reputation as a key defensive weapon for the Liberty. In 2007, she played in thirty-four regular-season games, averaging 22 minutes per game, 7.4 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game, and 1.0 steals per game.

During the 2006 WNBA off-season, Battle played for the Spanish professional basketball team Universitario de Ferrol. Next two campaigns she played in Gran Canaria y Leon, and now she is playing with Asefa Estudiantes.

{{WNBA player statistics legend}}

{{WNBA player statistics start|caption=WNBA regular season statistics}}

|-

| align="left" | 2005

| align="left" | Seattle

|2||0||4.0||50.0||—||—||1.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.5||1.0

|-

| align="left" | 2006

| align="left" | New York

|33||2||13.8||38.3||32.6||80.0||1.9||0.9||0.9||0.1||1.2||4.3

|-

| align="left" | 2007

| align="left" | New York

|34||5||22.3||36.5||31.2||77.6||3.7||1.6||1.0||0.1||1.4||7.4

|-

| align="left" | 2008

| align="left" | New York

|34||0||9.9||37.8||36.7||72.0||1.6||0.7||0.4||0.0||0.8||3.6

|-

| align="left" | 2009

| align="left" | New York

|34||3||16.1||42.6||41.3||69.6||2.5||1.2||0.9||0.1||1.5||5.2

|-

| align="left" | 2010

| align="left" | San Antonio

|5||0||7.0||33.3||0.0||—||1.8||0.2||0.0||0.0||0.6 ||1.6

|- class="sortbottom"

| align="left" | Career

| align="left" | 6 years, 3 teams

|142||10||15.1||38.4||33.6||74.3||2.4||1.1 ||0.8||0.1||1.2||5.0

{{S-end}}

{{WNBA player statistics start|caption=WNBA playoff statistics}}

|-

| align="left" | 2007

| align="left" | New York

|3||0||21.0||35.7||0.0||50.0||2.3||1.3||0.3||0.0||0.3||3.7

|-

| align="left" | 2008

| align="left" | New York

|6||0||15.5||36.4||33.3||—||2.2||1.5||0.8||0.2||0.5||3.2

|-

| align="left" | 2010

| align="left" | San Antonio

|2||0||17.0||20.0||50.0||75.0||3.0||2.0||0.5||0.0||0.5||3.0

|- class="sortbottom"

| align="left" | Career

| align="left" | 3 years, 2 teams

|11||0||17.3||34.1||30.8||66.7||2.4||1.5||0.6||0.1||0.5||3.3

{{S-end}}

File:Ashley Battle at induction ceremony.jpg

On December 29, 2013, the University of Connecticut inducted two women's basketball team, the National Championship winning teams of 2002–03 and 2003–04 into the Huskies of Honor. Battle was a player for each of those two seasons.

• Connecticut Huskies women's basketball
• List of Connecticut women's basketball players with 1000 points
• 2003–04 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team

She is now a first year head coach for the Chartiers Valley High School Girls' Basketball team of Pittsburgh, PA. Her assistant coaches are Julius Page who played at Pitt but couldn't enter the NBA draft due to an injury and Joe D'Abruzzo.

{{reflist|refs=

{{Cite web|url=http://uconnhooplegends.com/womensledgends/BattleAshley.html|title=UCONN Hoop Legends: ASHLEY BATTLE}}

{{cite news|title=Ashley Battle|url=http://www.courant.com/news/local/photo/hc-photo-ucbattle,0,2541335.photo|newspaper=Hartford Courant|accessdate=5 Jan 2013}}

[http://www.wnba.com/playerfile/ashley_battle/bio.html WNBA.com: Ashley Battle Playerfile] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210072344/http://www.wnba.com/playerfile/ashley_battle/bio.html |date=2012-02-10 }}

{{cite web|title=Fourth Women's Junior World Championship Qualifying Team -- 2000|date=June 10, 2010|url=http://www.usab.com/history/u18-womens/fourth-womens-junior-world-championship-qualifying-team-2000.aspx|publisher=USA Basketball|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912170651/http://www.usab.com/history/u18-womens/fourth-womens-junior-world-championship-qualifying-team-2000.aspx|archive-date=September 12, 2015 |url-status=dead|accessdate=20 October 2015}}

{{cite web|title=WBCA High School All-America Game Box Scores |url=http://www.wbca.org/pages/AWARDS_high_school_all-america_game_box_scores |publisher=Women's Basketball Coaches Association |accessdate=29 Jun 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715064856/http://www.wbca.org/pages/AWARDS_high_school_all-america_game_box_scores |archive-date=July 15, 2014 |df=mdy }}

{{cite web|url=http://www.uconnhuskies.com/datadump/WBasketball/2009/Media%20Guide/129-160.pdf|title=UConn Media Guide|pages=139|accessdate=2009-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226100534/http://www.uconnhuskies.com/datadump/WBasketball/2009/Media%20Guide/129-160.pdf|archive-date=February 26, 2012|url-status=dead}}

{{cite news|last=Altavilla|first=John|title=Taurasi-Era Teams Inducted Into Huskies Of Honor|date=December 29, 2013|url=http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/hc-uconn-women-notebook-1230-20131229,0,7145299.story|newspaper=Hartford Courant|publisher=Tribune Company|accessdate=30 Dec 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202181428/http://articles.courant.com/2013-12-29/sports/hc-uconn-women-notebook-1230-20131229_1_geno-auriemma-stefanie-dolson-uconn-teams|archive-date=December 2, 2015|url-status=dead}}

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Category:1982 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women's basketball players

Category:Basketball players from Pittsburgh

Category:Linsly School alumni

Category:New York Liberty players

Category:San Antonio Stars players

Category:Seattle Storm draft picks

Category:Seattle Storm players

Category:UConn Huskies women's basketball players

Category:Forwards (basketball)