The former Illinois State Redbird was a scoring machine in Normal.
While the transfer portal has taken a lot more from Mizzou women’s basketball than it’s given, the Tigers received arguably their best portal gift on Tuesday.
Illinois State’s Shannon Dowell, one of the top scorers in the Missouri Valley Conference, announced her commitment to Mizzou on Tuesday via her social media. She has two years of eligibility remaining.
Dowell, a native of O’Fallon, IL, was one of the brightest stars in the MVC over her first two seasons with ISU. She earned MVC All-Freshman honors at the end of the 2023-24 season; she averaged almost 10 points per game and had three straight 20-plus point outings at the end of the regular season. She brought her game to a new level last year, leading the Redbirds in scoring with almost 18 points per game. In the six games across the conference tournament and WNIT, Dowell averaged 26 points per game, including a career-high 37 in ISU’s loss to Troy in the WNIT semifinals.
While Dowell is far from the biggest player on the floor, she visits the paint as often as a big would. Not only that, she converts frequently, too. Dowell possesses a wide range of finishes close to the basket, which has allowed her to score over and around taller defenders.
Illinois State’s Shannon Dowell is a favorite of mine to watch on film from the MVC. She’s an athletic change of pace guard who lives in the paint, where a whopping 63% of her shots came from last season.
Here she is attacking the paint off of ball-screens. pic.twitter.com/m3rj9pRvgg
— Andrew Kurzeja (@AndrewKurzeja) April 11, 2025
Her constant existence in the paint has also earned her plenty of trips to the charity stripe: she averaged over 10 free throws per game last season and shot 75% from the line. That’ll be especially valuable to Mizzou, who didn’t see a single player average more than four free throws per game last season. Dowell is also an excellent rebounder for her size, averaging around four per game her freshman year and just over five per game last season. She’s grabbed at least 10 boards in a game six times.
— Shannon Dowell (@shannonsimoneee) April 15, 2025
Kellie Harper & Co. have now landed three transfers: Dowell, Jordana Reisma (Cleveland State) and Saniya Tyler (Kentucky). Two of them — Reisma and Dowell — were key scorers on their old teams. Harper & Co. will certainly hope that translates to the big bad SEC.
