Senior guard Marina Mabrey was selected as the No. 19 overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks, the seventh pick of the second round. Mabrey was the Sparks’ second pick of the 2019 Draft, coming after Baylor center Kalani Brown, who was taken with the No. 7 pick.
The Sparks made the playoffs last season, finishing sixth in the league in the regular season before falling to the Washington Mystics in the WNBA quarterfinals. Mabrey is not the first Irish player to grace the Sparks with her presence; former Irish forward Kathryn Westbeld, who graduated last season after captaining the Irish to a national championship, received a Sparks training camp contract, before being cut from the final roster.
Mabrey finished her career at Notre Dame as Notre Dame’s all-time 3-point leader, with 274 3s made in her four years. She also finished her career with a 40% 3-point percentage.
As a freshman, Mabrey and her older sister Michaela both played for the Irish. Mabrey started in just two games that season, but played in 35, averaging nearly 19 minutes per game and scoring 373 points.
As a sophomore, Mabrey made her name as a shooting guard, starting 36 of the 37 games she played in. She shot 0.471 from the field and 0.383 from beyond the arc. She also averaged a career-high 14.6 points per game that year.
As a junior, Mabrey’s role changed. When the Irish lost four players to the torn ACLs, including their point guard, graduate student Lili Thompson, Mabrey was forced into the 1-guard role and over the course of the season, was forced to adjust to running the point. She went from averaging 2.2 assists per game her freshmen and sophomore years to doubling that number her junior year. She also averaged 14.4 points per game as a junior and totaled 79 steals.
Continuing to run the point her senior year, Mabrey tallied 171 assists, 434 points and 80 3-pointers. She shot 0.408 from beyond the 3-point line and 0.466 from the field, averaging 12.8 points per game.
While Mabrey was the final pick for Notre Dame in the 2019 WNBA Draft, she was drafted in the top 20, marking the first time five players from the same team have been drafted in the top 20. It also just the second time five starters from the same team have been drafted in the same draft.
