HIGH POINT, N.C. – While the High Point University women's basketball team's backcourt features a mixture of veterans and newcomers, the frontcourt contains much more youth.
 
Senior Aariel Allen is not only the lone senior on HPU's 2015-16 roster; she's the only post player that has ever played in a college basketball game. After transferring from Tallahassee Junior College, Allen averaged 1.6 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in her first season with the Purple & White.
 
While her role on the court figures to expand in 2015-16 with the departures of Stacia Robertson and Latrice Phelps, the team also will need the forward to provide leadership.
 
"Aariel is our lone senior," head coach DeUnna Hendrix said. "She knows that and is taking pride in bringing the young kids along."
 
Despite not logging any playing time last season, much is expected from redshirt-freshman Kennedy Currie who cut her teeth going against Robertson and Phelps in practice last season. The Greensboro, N.C. native is chomping at the bit to finally get out on the court to offer her squad an inside scoring presence.
 
Joining Allen and Currie in the paint are three of the team's newcomers. Freshman Taylor McGlashan – the tallest player on the roster at 6-feet-2-inches – is an athletic forward who can cause mismatches with her ability to run the floor.
 
Fellow forward, Shea Morgan is a stretch-4 who can shoot from outside as well as excel on the block. Morgan, an AAU teammate of fellow freshman Emma Bockrath, has winning experience after helping Kettering Fairmont to a 2012-13 state championship in Ohio.
 
Likewise, Haleigh Hatfield gives the Panthers versatility at the forward spots. The 6-foot prospect from Winston-Salem, N.C. is a matchup nightmare with guard skills in a forward's frame. The 2014-15 Mary Garber Award winner as the best girls basketball player in Northwest North Carolina, Hatfield enters her first college season in the Triad with high expectations.
 
After coaching last season's team, which returned all five starters and 90 percent of its scoring from 2013-14, Hendrix sees this season as a different, yet more manageable challenge.
 
"It's a lot easier because there's not pressure," Hendrix said. "When you work with a veteran group – as nice as it is at times – it can also be a negative because it's hard to do things again and again. On the other hand, with a new group there aren't the same expectations and pressure and you can go out and have fun."
 
The new-look Panthers open the 2015-16 regular season on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in the Millis Center against the Greensboro College Pride.

Frontcourt Breakdown

#33 Aariel Allen	5-11	Sr.	Averaged a rebound every 2.5 minutes of game action in 2015-16
#24 Kennedy Currie	6-0	R-Fr.	Athletic forward was all-conference in basketball and volleyball in high school
#0 Haleigh Hatfield	6-0	Fr.	Posted at least 15 points per game all four years at Mount Tabor
#11 Taylor McGlashan	6-2	Fr.	A 3-time all-conference selection at Cherokee High School in New Jersey
#14 Shea Morgan	6-0	Fr.	Earned honorable mention All-Ohio accolades as a senior at Kettering Fairmont

 
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