GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – For the 16th consecutive year, the Atlantic Coast Conference had at least one student-athlete selected in the first round of the WNBA Draft, as the 2021 edition was held Thursday evening and broadcast live on ESPN. That streak is the most of any conference and the next closest is seven.

North Carolina guard Stephanie Watts was the first ACC player taken in the draft when she was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks with the 10th pick in the first round. She finished her career eighth in the conference and second in the Tar Heels’ record books with 275 3-point field goals made.

Watts averaged 12 points and recorded 40 steals this season to help lead North Carolina to the NCAA Tournament.

It marks the second consecutive year that the 10th pick in the draft has come from an ACC program. Last year, Virginia’s Jocelyn Willoughby was selected with the pick as the first ACC player off the board.

Two-time ACC Player of the Year Dana Evans of Louisville was the first player drafted in the second round with the 13th overall pick by the Dallas Wings. Hailing from Gary, Indiana, Evans was named the ACC’s Kay Yow Scholar-Athlete of the Year this season and helped lead the Cardinals to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

She led the conference in scoring with 20.1 points per game and recorded 19 20-point games, also the best in the league. Louisville has now had at least one player selected in each of the past four WNBA Drafts.

After leading Wake Forest to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988, Ivana Raca was selected in the third round (28th overall) by the Sparks and will join Watts in Los Angeles.  She is the first Demon Deacon to be selected in the WNBA Draft since Dearica Hamby in the first round of 2015.

Raca was fourth in the conference in scoring with 16.7 points per game. A native of Belgrade, Serbia, she averaged 9.0 rebounds per game to rank fifth in the league and logged 10 double-doubles.

The WNBA will tip off its landmark 25th season on Friday, May 14, with a full weekend of action featuring all 12 teams. The league will unveil its complete television schedule in the upcoming weeks.

The ACC led all conferences with 32 players on WNBA rosters and 22 players on WNBA Playoff rosters this past season. Both were the most of any conference.