Lincoln – Nebraska women’s basketball signee Jessica Shepard from Fremont joins the top 20  players in the nation on the Naismith Girls High School Player of the Year Watch List announced Tuesday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

The highest ranked recruit in the history of Nebraska women’s basketball and arguably the best high school player the state has ever produced, Shepard will join the Huskers as a true freshman in 2015-16 after signing her National Letter of Intent with Nebraska in November.

Shepard, who competed on the gold-medal winning USA Basketball team at the 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Championships, is the No. 3 recruit in the Class of 2015, according to ESPN.

The 6-4 forward entered her senior season at Fremont High School as a two-time Nebraska Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year (2013, 2014) and three-time first-team Super-State (Lincoln Journal Star) and All-Nebraska (Omaha World-Herald).

As a junior in 2013-14, Shepard averaged a Class A state record 30.4 points per game to go along with 15.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in leading Fremont to a 22-4 record and a state tournament berth for Coach Tony Weinandt. It was just Fremont’s second bid to state since 1985. Her performances included a career-high 43 points against Lincoln East and 40 points against Kansas High School power Bishop Miege and Papillion-LaVista.

The honorary captain of both the Lincoln Journal Star Super-State and Omaha World-Herald All-Nebraska teams, Shepard’s junior season scoring average surpassed her 24.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.8 steals per game as a sophomore at Lincoln Southeast. She powered the Knights to the 2013 Class A state title, before moving with her family to Fremont in the summer of 2013.

As a freshman, Shepard earned her first Super-State and Class A honors by averaging 17.8 points and 9.1 rebounds in leading Lincoln Southeast to a state runner-up finish.

As a member of the USA Basketball U18 Team at the FIBA Americas Championship, Shepard averaged 12.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game while helping the team to a 5-0 record and a gold medal in the summer of 2014. She hit 66.7 percent of her shots from the field in the tournament.

She is also an outstanding student, carrying a 3.90 grade-point average. She has earned academic all-state and all-conference honors, as well as a spot in the National Honor Society. She is a four-year honor roll selection.