April 12, 2006

UTPA head women's basketball coach DeAnn Craft announced on Wednesday (Apr. 12) that Tamara Vaughn (Houston, TX/Blinn College) has signed a National Letter of Intent and will join the Lady Broncs' basketball program during the 2006-07 academic year.

"Tamara is a player that we identified early in the process in September, and we think she is a perfect fit for our perimeter game. She will be especially important with the loss of Dominique Montague (Gilbert, AZ/Central Arizona College) and Devin Reed (Indianapolis, IN/Cowley County C.C.). She's a great shooter and should be very complimentary to our program," said Craft.

The newly-signed Lady Bronc comes to UTPA from Blinn College in Brenham, TX, where she enjoyed a great deal of success for the Buccaneers. As a sophomore, Tamara averaged 8.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 39.4 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from behind the three-point arc. In conference play, she scored 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 37.3 percent on three-point field goal attempts.

Vaughn was an All-Region XIV Athletic Conference and All-Region XIV performer in her sophomore season with the Buccaneers. Blinn College tied a program record with 24 wins during the 2005-06 season while finishing as runners-up in the NJCAA Region XIV Tournament, which was the Buccaneers' best finish since the 1990-91 season.

"Tamara was our most steady player this past year and came up big in conference games for us. She's a hard-working player with excellent fundamentals, and she just knows the game of basketball," added Blinn College head coach Jeff Jenkins.

"I really liked the coaches and believed that I would be a good fit at UTPA. It's a chance to be part of a good basketball program as well as continuing my education at a quality school," Vaughn stated.

Vaughn attended J. Frank Dobie High School in Houston, TX, which was the same school that produced Lady Bronc senior Stacey Gooden (Houston, TX/J. Frank Dobie H.S.). A standout for head coach Doug Gibson, Vaughn earned first team All-State, All-Region and All-District honors while leading her team to the Texas State Championship Tournament in her final season with the program.

The Lady Broncs will be returning 11 players - one senior, five juniors and five sophomores - from their 2005-06 squad.

UTPA Sports Information