Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1992
- Class:
- 1986
No one in the history of Marshall University basketball has scored more points than Karen Pelphrey. While playing for Coach Judy Southard from 1982-1986, the Paintsville, Ky., native – who had led the state of Kentucky in scoring with an average of 36 points per game as a senior at Johnson Central High School – put up an amazing 2,746 points for Coach Judy Southard’s teams. The 6-foot-1 forward averaged 20.1 points per game as a freshman in the 1982-83 season and her scoring totals just went up from there as she scored 25.1 points per game as a sophomore and junior and then upped the mark to 26.1 points per game as a senior, when she was named the Southern Conference Player of the Year and was named first team All-Southern Conference for the third consecutive season. Pelphrey and her teammates won the Southern Conference regular-season title her final two seasons. Pelphrey was also named a first team All-American by the American Women’s Sports Federation as a senior after taking second-team honors the previous two seasons.
Over the course of her Marshall career, Pelphrey scored 20 or more points 79 times, registered 23 games of 30 or more points, and topped 40 three times, including a still-standing school record of 48 points against Kentucky State her sophomore season; she failed to score in double figures only four times in 114 career games. Pelphrey also pulled down 891 career rebounds, which at the time was the most in Marshall history. Pelphrey’s career scoring total of 2,746 points and scoring average of 24.1 points per game remain in the all-time Top 20 in women’s college basketball. Her jersey No. 12 was retired by Marshall at the conclusion of her career. Pelphrey was inducted into the Southern Conference Hall of Fame in 2016. She was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.
