After nearly giving up the sport she had been devoted to because of a health scare, Moriah Murray rejuvenated her basketball career at Penn State. Now, she is ready for the next challenge in her journey.<\/p>\n
A former four-time, all-state guard from Dunmore, Murray entered the transfer portal following last season, and recently announced her next stop is in Gainesville and at the University of Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am definitely relieved,\u201d Murray, 22, said. \u201cIt was a lot to deal with. I didn\u2019t really know what I wanted to do: stay at Penn State or enter the portal. It was a hard decision, but I felt that I needed a change for one year. I was so stressed, but I had (Coach) Kevin (Clark) helping me through the process. I was struggling with staying close to home so my father (Joe) could still see me play, or making a move farther away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened really fast. When I visited Florida, I was on campus and had a feeling it was the right place. The head coach (Tammi Reiss) and staff were great, and I just got a gut feeling about the school. I decided that I am all in on Florida. It is beautiful, and I committed.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her high school career, Murray was a flashy, gritty sharpshooter. Initially, she intended to play at Drexel University. However, before her freshman year, a nagging knee injury led to an MRI, where a lesion on her femur was discovered. Doctors originally diagnosed it as cancer, which led to an anxious few months.<\/p>\n
During that time, Murray leaned heavily on her family and friends for love and support. She withdrew from Drexel and shifted her focus to her recovery. Basketball moved to the background.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the lesion was not malignant and she did not have cancer. Relieved and energized, she committed to Penn State University to restart playing basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was scary stuff,\u201d Murray recalled. \u201cI know that I didn\u2019t even want to play Division I basketball anymore. But once I was good, I got back into it, and Penn State was great. I had tests throughout, and everything has been cleared since. I have had no problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Penn State, Murray, a 5-foot-8 guard, had an impact. She sat out her freshman season after enrolling midseason, then played 35 games as a sophomore, averaging 4.3 points and shooting 88.2% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
Murray started 27 games as a junior and had a career-high 28 points with nine 3-pointers against Bucknell. She averaged 10.4 points per game and had 71 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Last season, she scored 25 points with eight 3-pointers against Ohio State, averaged 9.4 points per game, and had 76 3-pointers. She shot 38% from beyond the 3-point line in her career and was a steady free-throw shooter at 92.6%.<\/p>\n
Penn State had a coaching change with Tanisha Wright succeeding Carolyn Kieger, who departed after seven seasons and an 11-18 record overall and a 4-14 record in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that in my years at Penn State, redshirting and with my health scare, everything, I had a great opportunity,\u201d Murray said. \u201cI got a chance to play big-time college basketball. Penn State was amazing; Coach Kieger was great. She trusted me, and she and the staff really transformed me into the player that I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 1, Murray entered the transfer portal and, nearly three weeks later, announced her commitment to Florida with the message \u201cGod\u2019s plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComing from Penn State and the Big Ten and going to the SEC is exciting,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThey are the top two conferences in women\u2019s basketball. I am excited to pick the coaches\u2019 brains and keep working to improve and develop my game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray is the third athlete from Northeast Pennsylvania to recently commit to Florida. Former Lakeland and James Madison tight end Lacota Dippre and former Scranton Prep and East Carolina running back London Montgomery are part of the football program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey both texted me, saying congratulations,\u201d Murray said. \u201cThat is super cool. I am excited to see them around campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray will join the two in Florida in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be a grind, but I am excited about this great opportunity,\u201d Murray said. \u201cI am looking forward to this new experience and being able to continue and develop my game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly giving up the sport she had been devoted to because of a health scare, Moriah Murray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-179014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}