SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Shannon Lee, starting point guard for the highly-successful Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College women's basketball program the past two seasons, has signed an NCAA Division II Letter of Intent to play at Slippery Rock University, first-year SRU head coach Tanya Bauer announced Monday.

The 5-foot-8 Lee, a graduate of Mukwonago High School in Wisconsin, is the third recruit signed by Bauer, who assumed The Rock reins in May after serving nine seasons as an NCAA Division I assistant coach, the past two at Southern Illinois University.

“Shannon is a cerebral player who is very sound fundamentally," Bauer said. "She brings a lot of experience to our program at the point guard position.”

Marshalltown head coach Larry Roberts was ecstatic Lee and Bauer were able to connect, especially late in the recruiting season.

“Shannon's an extremely hard-working, tough-nosed kind of basketball player,” Roberts said. “She's also a very good leader. She doesn't scream or holler, she just outworks everyone else on the floor and she will step up to any challenge presented to her.

“She got a lot of interest from NAIA schools, but she really wanted to play at a (NCAA) Division II school because she wants to push herself and be the best she can be and, in the process, also make her team and teammates the best they can be,” Roberts said. “So I think she will do well at Slippery Rock.”

“Shannon's the kind of player you need to have on your team. Her motor runs constantly and she goes above and beyond the call of duty to make sure things go right for her and her team.”

“As a person she goes out of her way to help others in any manner she can,” Roberts said. “She's a very caring person.”

To that end, Lee willingly accepted the role of playmaker in an up-tempo offense that featured two-time National Junior College Athletic Association Division II All-America performer Kwinnyata Mercer.

Lee was rewarded for her unselfishness by being named to first-team all-region athletic and academic honors last winter after she averaged 8.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, four assists and two steals per game last winter.

“We didn't need her to shoot and score for us,” Roberts said, “but Shannon is a good shooter. She shot 53% from the field and 76% from the foul line. She also gets to the basket well, which makes her valuable because that results in a lot of free throw shots.

“A lot of times, she also guarded the other team's point guard,” the Tigers head coach added. “That's something I try to avoid having my point guard do because it puts added stress on them, but Shannon did a great job for us when we asked her to do that.”

A starter for the final season and a half of her junior-college career, Lee played a major role in Marshalltown compiling a 52-14 record the past two seasons. The Tigers had a 27-6 record and were ranked as high as sixth in the national poll before they ended the 2009-10 season ranked 13th.

The Tigers' path to higher ground was blocked by four-time defending national champion Kirkwood, an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference rival that handed Marshalltown a second-round loss in the regional playoffs.

Lee wasn't recruited much out of high school, Roberts said, mainly as the result of a broken finger she sustained midway through her senior season.

“But I knew as soon as I saw her play she was someone we needed to have on our team,” Roberts said. “You could see from the way she played that she has the skills necessary to excel at the next level. I'm sure that's what Coach Bauer thought the first time she saw tape of Shannon playing.”

“I anticipate her doing well in our up-tempo system because she does a great job leading the break in transition.”

Lee is scheduled to make her first appearance as a member of The Rock program on Nov. 2 when the Green and White travel to NCAA Division I Cleveland State University for an exhibition game.

The first official game for the Bauer-led Rock will be a Nov. 15 home game vs. Tiffin (Ohio) University in Morrow Field House.

Lee joins forward Dannielle Smith (6-0, Brown Mackie College) and guard Sherita Stanley (5-9, John A. Logan College) as the newest members of The Rock program.