Ashley Battle

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Template other Ashley Battle (born May 31, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who spent most of her career with the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Drafted by the Seattle Storm in 2005, she played 2 games for them before being waived. She was with the New York Liberty for the 2006 through 2009 seasons. Battle played collegiately for the University of Connecticut women's basketball team.

Early life

Battle is an only child to a single mother. She started playing basketball at an early age with her cousins. When she was in fifth grade at Manchester Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was the only girl on the boys' basketball team. While playing in a school tournament, a few Amateur Athletic Union coaches saw Battle and soon recruited her to play for them. During the AAU tournaments, Battle met and became friends with Maria Conlon and Diana Taurasi.

High school

During her high school years, she was looking to get away from Pittsburgh, so she decided to attend The Linsly School, a boarding school in Wheeling, West Virginia that was strong academically. Linsly was known for academics and not basketball, a reputation Battle helped change. In her junior season, the team went undefeated. Battle set school records in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and set the trend with more good female basketball players coming to the school to play. Battle was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored three points.

USA Basketball

Battle was a member of the USA Women's U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. The event was held in July 2000, when the USA team defeated Cuba to win the championship. Battle helped the team win all five games, scoring 5.4 points per game.

College

Battle's number 1 choice for college was Stanford University. Stanford wanted Battle to come for her visit in the spring of her senior year in high school. However, Battle wanted to make a decision and sign her commitment letter during the early signing period in the fall of her senior year so that meant Stanford was not an option. She narrowed her choices to Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Connecticut. Battle's mom preferred Duke as basketball was on the rise, the education was great, and it was within driving distance from Pittsburgh. Battle had a tough time deciding between UConn and Duke. Her AAU friends Maria Conlon and Diana Taurasi had already committed to UConn so she decided to follow them there. Battle's freshman year at UConn started great. She consistently got playing time until she injured her elbow in a game against Miami. Since it was only the fifth game of the season she was granted a red-shirt. In 2002 the Huskies went undefeated and won the National Championship. They would go on to also win the 2003 and 2004 Championships. During the 2003 season, Battle earned the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award. She graduated from UConn with a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Economics.

Professional career

WNBA

Battle was selected by the Seattle Storm at No. 25 in the 2005 WNBA draft, but played in only two games that year. After the 2005 season, she was signed by the New York Liberty. In 2006, Battle played in thirty-three games and developed a reputation as a key defensive weapon for the Liberty. In 2007, she played in thirty-four regular-season games, averaging 22 minutes per game, 7.4 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game, and 1.0 steals per game.

International

During the 2006 WNBA off-season, Battle played for the Spanish professional basketball team Universitario de Ferrol. Next two campaigns she played in Gran Canaria y Leon, and now she is playing with Asefa Estudiantes.

Career statistics

*	Denotes season(s) in which Battle won an NCAA Championship

WNBA

Regular season

Template:WNBA player statistics start |- | align="left" | 2005 | align="left" | Seattle |2||0||4.0||50.0||—||—||1.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.5||1.0 |- | align="left" | 2006 | align="left" | New York |33||2||13.8||38.3||32.6||80.0||1.9||0.9||0.9||0.1||1.2||4.3 |- | align="left" | 2007 | align="left" | New York |34||5||22.3||36.5||31.2||77.6||3.7||1.6||1.0||0.1||1.4||7.4 |- | align="left" | 2008 | align="left" | New York |34||0||9.9||37.8||36.7||72.0||1.6||0.7||0.4||0.0||0.8||3.6 |- | align="left" | 2009 | align="left" | New York |34||3||16.1||42.6||41.3||69.6||2.5||1.2||0.9||0.1||1.5||5.2 |- | align="left" | 2010 | align="left" | San Antonio |5||0||7.0||33.3||0.0||—||1.8||0.2||0.0||0.0||0.6 ||1.6 |- class="sortbottom" | align="left" | Career | align="left" | 6 years, 3 teams |142||10||15.1||38.4||33.6||74.3||2.4||1.1 ||0.8||0.1||1.2||5.0 |}

Playoffs

Template:WNBA player statistics start |- | align="left" | 2007 | align="left" | New York |3||0||21.0||35.7||0.0||50.0||2.3||1.3||0.3||0.0||0.3||3.7 |- | align="left" | 2008 | align="left" | New York |6||0||15.5||36.4||33.3||—||2.2||1.5||0.8||0.2||0.5||3.2 |- | align="left" | 2010 | align="left" | San Antonio |2||0||17.0||20.0||50.0||75.0||3.0||2.0||0.5||0.0||0.5||3.0 |- class="sortbottom" | align="left" | Career | align="left" | 3 years, 2 teams |11||0||17.3||34.1||30.8||66.7||2.4||1.5||0.6||0.1||0.5||3.3 |}

College

University of Connecticut statistics
Year	G	FG	FGA	PCT	3FG	3FGA	PCT	FT	FTA	PCT	REB	AVG	A	TO	B	S	MIN	PTS	AVG
2000–01	5	9	13	0.692	0	0	0	3	8	0.375	14	2.8	7	12	0	9	52	21	4.2
2001–02*	39	77	172	0.448	8	32	0.25	50	74	0.676	183	4.7	49	56	6	35	653	212	5.4
2002–03*	37	118	245	0.482	7	26	0.269	64	95	0.674	198	5.4	70	69	7	55	828	307	8.3
2003–04*	35	93	179	0.412	7	17	0.412	63	76	0.829	153	4.4	50	56	6	56	674	256	7.3
2004–05	33	95	229	0.415	21	70	0.3	47	60	0.783	148	4.5	59	65	5	36	673	258	7.8
Totals	149	392	838	0.468	43	145	0.297	227	313	0.725	696	4.7	235	258	24	191	2880	1054	7.1

Huskies of Honor induction

File:Ashley Battle at induction ceremony.jpg

Ashley Battle at induction ceremony

On December 29, 2013, the University of Connecticut inducted two women's basketball team, the National Championship winning teams of 2002–03 and 2003–04 into the Huskies of Honor. Battle was a player for each of those two seasons.

See also

• Connecticut Huskies women's basketball
• List of Connecticut women's basketball players with 1000 points
• 2003–04 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team

She is now a first year head coach for the Chartiers Valley High School Girls' Basketball team of Pittsburgh, PA. Her assistant coaches are Julius Page who played at Pitt but couldn't enter the NBA draft due to an injury and Joe D'Abruzzo.