Basketball standout goes pro in Portugal

Rachel Story signed a contract to play professionally in Portugal. Photo: Timothy Nguyen/UIC News

Former UIC women’s basketball player and 2014 graduate Rachel Story signed a contract to play professional basketball abroad next season.

Story will play for Clube Desportivo Torres Novas of Portugal’s Liga Feminina League. She joins Jasmine Bailey (Fila San Martino Di Lupari) and Jessie Miller (DJK Brose Bamberg) as former Flames currently playing professionally overseas.

The Milwaukee native played two years at the University of Louisville before transferring to UIC after the 2010-11 season. She sat out 2011-12 due to NCAA transfer rules but went on to finish her two-year Flames career with 1,077 points, 15th in program history.

Story averaged 17.1 points per game and drained 96 three-pointers over 63 career appearances.

In her first season at UIC in 2012-13, Story led the team in scoring and ranked sixth in the Horizon League with 15.6 points per game. Named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team, she was the conference’s highest-scoring newcomer.

As a senior in 2013-14, Story helped UIC to achieve the best season in program history. The Flames won a program-record 26 games, collected the first postseason championship (WBI) in program history and had the nation’s largest turnaround. UIC collected 17 more wins (26-9) than the entire 2012-13 campaign (9-21).

Story led the squad in scoring at 18.5 points per game during the 2013-14 campaign and scored 609 points, the second most in a single season at UIC. She ranked fourth in the Horizon League in scoring and was named to the All-League Second Team. Story was named to the WBI All-Tournament Team following the Flames’ title game win over Stephen F. Austin.

She has spent the summer preparing for her new career and joins the squad in Portugal in the fall. Her first preseason game is scheduled for late September.