This year's All-Star Challenge team will compete against the 2004 USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team. This will mark the third time that an All-Star Challenge Team and a USA Senior National Team will compete against one another.

A prelude to the NCAA Women's Final Four in New Orleans, this year's game will be the second of a doubleheader event featured during the "WBCA Night of All-Stars." Fans will have an opportunity to watch and collect autographs from the future WNBA stars, as well as see the WBCA High School All-America Game, presented by Nike, which tips-off at 4:30 p.m. (CST).

This year's WBCA All-Star Challenge features 18 of the top senior NCAA Division I players, voted on by Division I Head Coaches, and the NCAA Division II, III and NAIA top senior vote getters in The State Farm/WBCA Player of the Year ballots. The team is composed of six players from each position: point guard, perimeter and post.

The roster includes Duke's Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis, LSU's Doneeka Hodges and Temeka Johnson, Purdue's Erika Valek and Shereka Wright, Boston College's Amber Jacobs, UConn's Diana Taurasi, Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen, Arkansas' Shameka Christon and Houston's Chandi Jones.

Rounding out the roster are Kelly Mazzante of Penn State, Nicole Powell of Stanford, Colorado's Tera Bjorklund, Rebekkah Brunson of Georgetown, Nicole Ohlde of Kansas State, Texas' Stacy Stephens and Christi Thomas of Georgia.

The All-Star Challenge Roster could change if any of the aforementioned players' teams are participating in the NCAA Women's Final Four®. This year, alternates will not be chosen due to the USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team's involvement.

"The WBCA is excited about presenting the "WBCA Night of All-Stars" in New Orleans. The WBCA All-Star Challenge is always a lot of fun for both the players and the fans," said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. "It will be great to see future basketball stars competing with some of the best in the professional game."

Past stars of the All-Star Challenge include: Cheryl Ford (Detroit Shock); Chantelle Anderson (Sacramento Monarchs); Semeka Randall (San Antonio Silver Stars); Marie Ferdinand (Utah Starzz); Chamique Holdsclaw (Washington Mystics); Ticha Penicherio (Sacramento Monarchs); Kelly Miller (Indiana Fever); Coco Miller and Murriel Page (Washington Mystics), and many more stars of the WNBA.

Fans can order tickets by calling the Tulane University Ticket Office at 504-861-9283, calling Ticketmaster at 504-522-5555 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets for the "WBCA Night of All-Stars" are $25.00 for Reserved Side Court and $15.00 for Reserved End Court.

Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport of women's basketball and to foster and promote the development of the game of basketball as an amateur sport for women and girls. For more information on the WBCA, please visit WBCA.org.

2004 WBCA All-Star Challenge Sketches

Shameka Christon, Arkansas
Christon is the SEC Player of the Year. She leads her team with a solid 21.8 points-per-game average. Christon was also named to the All-SEC first team.

Amber Jacobs, Boston College
Jacobs scored 22 points en route to an upset victory over Connecticut to win the BIG EAST Tournament Championship. Jacobs was named to this season's All-BIG EAST second team.

Tera Bjorklund, Colorado
Bjorklund is the second-leading scorer in Lady Buffs' history. Bjorklund was named to the first team All-Big 12 team for consecutive seasons. She leads her team in scoring and is a finalist for three National Player of the Year Awards.

Diana Taurasi, Connecticut
For the second consecutive year, Taurasi has been selected as BIG EAST Player of the Year. In addition, she was named to the All-BIG EAST first team. She was the recipient of the 2003 State Farm Wade Trophy. She has averaged 15.5 points per game this season.

Alana Beard, Duke
Beard, co-captain of the # 1 ranked Blue Devils, has won ACC Player of the Year for three consecutive seasons. The team recently won its fifth consecutive ACC tournament championship. She was named one of the top ten ACC women athletes of all time.

Iciss Tillis, Duke
Also a member of the ACC tournament champion Blue Devils, Tillis has won consecutive tournament MVP titles. Tillis is averaging 12.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. She is the second player in school history to score over 1,000 points and 900 rebounds.

Rebekkah Brunson, Georgetown
The BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, Brunson has accumulated 50 blocks and 48 steals this season. She also pulls down an average of 12.0 rebounds and averages 19.1 points.

Christi Thomas, Georgia
Thomas, who was named first-team All-SEC, is averaging 13.1 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Thomas had 12 points in their upset victory over Tennessee, which led the team to the SEC Tournament Championship Game.

Chandi Jones, Houston
Jones scored 36 points to lead her team to the Conference USA Tournament Championship. She was named tournament MVP and scored 81 points over the course of the tournament. She has a scoring average of 22.5 points per game.

Nicole Ohlde, Kansas State
Ohlde helped to lead her team to a share of the Big 12 regular season championship. She and her team are now focused on winning the tournament championship. Ohlde has tallied over 100 assists and over 450 points this season.

Doneeka Hodges Louisiana State University
Hodges is averaging 14.7 points per game this season. Included in that total is a 24-point performance in the SEC tournament that led the team to the semifinal game.

Temeka Johnson, Louisiana State University
Johnson is leading the Lady Tigers in assists with 7.9 per game. She was named first team All-SEC by the coaches and second team All-SEC by the Associated Press. Last season, Johnson was SEC Tournament MVP.

Lindsay Whalen, Minnesota
Named to the All-Big Ten first team, Whalen averaged 20.7 points and tabbed 106 rebounds this season. She accumulated these stats before being injured during a conference game in mid-February, which has prevented her from playing.

Kelly Mazzante, Penn State
With 2,861 points, Mazzante is now in the top-10 all-time scorers in NCAA history. Earlier this season, she broke the Big Ten scoring record to become the conference's scoring leader. She was also named Big Ten Player of the Year for the second time.

Erika Valek, Purdue
Valek's Boilermakers are the Big Ten Tournament Champions. She was named second-team All-Big Ten and is averaging 8.5 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game.

Shereka Wright, Purdue
Wright leads the team in points and rebounds averaging 20.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. She was named first-team All-Big Ten this season, marking her third time winning the honor and was also named the Big Ten Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Nicole Powell, Stanford
Powell leads the PAC-10 Tournament Champions in scoring with an average of 19.9 points per game. Powell is the PAC-10 Player of the Year and ranks first in the conference in both rebounding and free-throw percentage.

Stacy Stephens, Texas
Stephens is averaging 12.0 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Longhorns. She was named to the All-Big 12 first team. The Longhorns are currently playing in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.