The list of Arizona big-time women’s basketball stars continues to grow.

Following in the footsteps of such noteworthy players as Phoenix Mountain Pointe’s Nicole Powell and Mesa Red Mountain’s Kayla Pedersen (both Stanford) will be Courtney Ekmark of Phoenix St. Mary’s.

Ekmark won’t graduate until 2014, but she already has committed to play for the prestigious University of Connecticut program, according to Richard Obert of The Arizona Republic.

"I am very proud of her. The University of Connecticut is at the pinnacle of women's basketball,'' Curtis Ekmark, Courtney's father and the head coach at St. Mary's, told AIA365.com today.

"It's a great enviornment. Their fan base is huge. We went to a game that started at 9 p.m. There were 15,000 people in the stands and people were scalping tickets outside.''

He said that when Courtney participated in the Under 17 National team practice recently in Colorado Springs, Colo., a number of Connecticut papers interviewed her, knowing that she was on the school's radar.

The 6-foot Ekmark is versatile. She can handle the ball very well, shoot from virtually anywhere on the floor and even sneak inside to bring down a few rebounds.

She is expected to play mostly as a wing at UConn. Curtis Ekmark said that UConn has one of the top recruiting classes for this fall, and that those players will be juniors by the time that Courtney arrives, allowing her to fit in at that point. He said she will be going back to UConn in a few weeks and will be playing open-gym games with some of her future teammates.

St. Mary’s won Arizona’s Division I championship and was the top-ranked team in the country. Shilpa Tummala, widely regarded as the state's top player, will play for Harvard and twins Danielle and Dominique Williams are expected to make their commitments soon, likely to the same school, Curtis Ekmark said.