By John Elambo

During her high school career, Shaina Pellington was ranked as high as the No. 5 international prospect and the top international guard by ProspectsNation.com.

She led the Canadian U16 Team to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas Tournament in 2015. She also competed for Canada at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championships. 

Pellington began her NCAA career at the University of Oklahoma, where she played two seasons and was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2018.

During her freshman season she was named 2018 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and was a unanimous pick for the All-Freshman Team. She was second on the team in scoring to lead all the freshman in the Big 12.

In the summer of 2019, Pellington was named to the Senior Women’s Canadian National Team that participated in a five-game exhibition tour in Belgium and Great Britain. She continued to represent Canada at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru. 

Pellington transferred to the University of Arizona for her junior season. She had to sit out the season due to the NCAA transfer rules, in the meantime she competed for Canada at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and helped her country secure a spot in the Olympics to be held in Tokyo, Japan. 

Pellington’s senior season at Arizona was a huge success as she became the first SBA Lady Blue alumni to ever play in a NCAA championship game. Unfortunately for Pennington and her teammates, Arizona lost by one point to Stanford in the 2021 title game.