JACKSONVILLE – Head coach Rick Pietri and the Jacksonville State Women's Basketball team announced the signing of Morehead State transfer Valentina Saric Tuesday morning. Saric will be coming to Jacksonville as a red-shirt sophomore, standing at 6-foot-2-inches, and hailing from Los Altos, California.
 
Saric appeared in 22 games as a freshman for the Eagles and started in five. As a freshman, Saric averaged 5.3 points per game on 31.3% shooting from the field. She shot 30.4% from three as a freshman but had a drastic improvement from year one to year two.
 
She averaged 16.9 minutes per game as a freshman and 17.1 minutes per game in her sophomore season. In her time on the court as a sophomore, Saric proved to be an elite shooter from range. She averaged 8.3 points per game on 48.1% shooting from three and 45.5% shooting from the field. The Eagles transfer appeared in seven games in her sophomore campaign.
 
Prior to Morehead State, Saric attended Woodside Priory High School in Portola Valley, California. She led Priory to a Central Coast Section Division 5 title and was named to the All-Metro Team and Division 5 Second Team. Saric earned the Tournament MVP in the Division 5 tournament after scoring almost half her team's points in the championship game.
 
As a high-school senior, Saric averaged 18.5 points and six rebounds per game. She averaged 14.5 points as a junior, 8.0 points as a sophomore, and 5.0 points as a freshman. Saric is also a member of the Croatian U20 National Team and will be competing from May through August with the team.
 
"We have a spot available at the four, and we thought from what we saw of Valentina that she's somebody that could definitely fill that role for us," Pietri said. "She really has elite level perimeter shooting ability, can really shoot it from the arc, but also has the ability to put the ball on the floor and has length and is a really good athlete. When evaluating her, we felt that she would be a great fit for our need, so we're confident that she can fill that hole for us."
 
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