Aijha Blackwell, the leading scorer and rebounder for Missouri's women's basketball team, entered the transfer portal Friday, making it four Tigers players who have announced this week that they are leaving the program.
Blackwell, a 6-foot junior guard from St. Louis, averaged 15.4 points and 13.0 rebounds, the latter second in Division I this season behind DePaul freshman Aneesah Morrow at 13.8.
"I would like to thank Mizzou Nation for the past three years," Blackwell wrote in a Twitter post. "You all have embraced me as one of your own, and I could never repay you for all you have done for me. To the coaching staff and my teammates, it was always a dream of mine to play in the SEC and be part of an elite program. You afforded me that opportunity."
Blackwell missed three of the Tigers' last four regular-season games for disciplinary reasons and played just 11 minutes in their SEC tournament loss to Arkansas. She finished her three-season career at Mizzou averaging 15.0 PPG and 10.2 RPG in 79 games. Her final game was the Tigers' WNIT loss to Drake on March 17, in which she had 27 points and 10 rebounds.
Also entering the transfer portal from Missouri are 6-4 senior forward LaDazhia Williams (9.1 PPG), 5-7 freshman guard Izzy Higginbottom (6.0 PPG) and 6-1 freshman forward Kiya Dorroh (1.1 PPG).
Missouri went 18-13 this season and was one of two teams to beat NCAA tournament No. 1 overall seed South Carolina. The Tigers finished 18-13 overall and 7-9 in the SEC; they were on the NCAA tournament bubble but did not make the field. Their last trip to the NCAA tournament was in 2019, when they lost in the second round to Iowa.
