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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NEW YORK – One of the area’s finest basketball exports is now taking her talent to the W as Sarah Ashlee Barker was selected to play in the WNBA.

Barker was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks with the ninth pick in the first round of the 2025 WNBA Draft on Monday, April 14 at The Shed in New York.

Barker was projected by ESPN to go to the Sparks, but not until the second round with the 21st pick.

Barker was a standout player for the Alabama Crimson Tide, spending two seasons in Tuscaloosa and finishing the 2025 season by averaging 18.2 points per game, the most of anybody on coach Kristi Curry’s team.

Barker came to Tuscaloosa after a pair of seasons at Georgia, opting to come to her home state of Alabama to be closer to her family while playing for the team she grew up rooting for.

A two-time All-SEC First Team selection, Barker was one of the most electric players in the entire country, ranking 10th in the SEC in scoring, eighth in assists and steals and seventh in field goal percentage. She averaged the most steals of any Alabama player with 2.0 per game and the second-most rebounds with 6.2 per game.

She became just the fifth Alabama player to surpass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists for her career on her senior day on Feb. 22 against Auburn.

As a result, she took a spot on the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Midseason Team, as well as watch list spots for the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year and Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year awards. She lost to USC’s Juju Watkins in each of those three awards.

Barker finished her Alabama career on a high note, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season and beating Green Bay to advance in the second round.

In the second-round game on the road at Maryland, she set a single-game scoring record for the NCAA Tournament with 45 points, including three-straight free throws to force double overtime ahead of an eventual loss.

Before starting her college career with Georgia, Barker helped Spain Park reach historic heights.

A two-time state champion and ASWA State Player of the Year in Class 7A, she scored over 2,000 points and had over 1,000 rebounds in her career for the Jags.

She finished her Spain Park career with a standout senior year where she helped the Jags earn a 32-4 record and their second state championship in three seasons by defeating crosstown rival Hoover, 47-44, in the state title game.

Barker won Miss Basketball during that season and was also named the Gatorade Player of the Year and MaxPreps Player of the Year for the state of Alabama, the first in program history to earn each award. She also took home Class 7A Tournament MVP honors during that season.

She was named Shelby County Player of the Year in 2019 and 2020 and earned First Team All-County honors in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Now, Barker will play alongside last year’s first-round draft picks Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson on the Sparks as part of a young core looking to return one of the league’s most historic franchises to its former glory.