Sickles senior guard Cassidy O’Brien has signed with Montreat College in North Carolina, according to her father.
O’Brien, who was a second-team all-Hillsborough selection by the Times, will start at the private Christian liberal arts school in the fall. Montreat competes in the Appalachian Athletic Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
O’Brien, daughter of former Sickles football coach Pat O’Brien, returned to Sickles this year after spending a year in North Dakota and then another in North Carolina. She became the leading scorer for the Gryphons, who showed no signs of slippage despite the graduation of Times’ 2012 Player of the Year Bre Crum.
The 5-foot-7 O’Brien was the only Gryphon to average double figures in scoring (13.1 points), shooting 38 percent from three-point range. She led Sickles to a 25-5 record, its sixth-straight playoff berth, an undefeated run through District 6A-11 and to a region final.