— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — From Stetson green to Marshall green.
That is the route traveled by Sophia Aldridge, a former standout girls basketball player at Cabell Midland.
Aldridge recently announced she will play at Marshall following a late recruiting effort by new MU head coach Juli Fulks, who was already familiar with Aldridge from her time as head coach at Transylvania.
Aldridge had originally committed to play at Stetson in Deland, Florida, but pulled back that commitment last summer due to family health issues.
Aldridge is a 5-foot-10 combination guard who missed most of her senior year at Cabell Midland due to an ankle injury. As a junior, she averaged nearly 11 points to go with 3.5 rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
Aldridge also averaged nearly nine points as a sophomore.
Aldridge also had offers from Coastal Carolina, North Florida, Niagara and Wright State.
The Herd also got a welcomed big addition in Blessing King, a 5-10 transfer from Morehead state with rebounding prowess.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, King comes to Huntington off a strong freshman year at Morehead, where averaged 10.6 boards to finish second in the Ohio Valley Conference. King totaled at least 10 rebounds in 20 separate games and had a season-high 18 against Southern Indiana.
Additionally, King averaged scoring 5.8 points.
In Morehead’s 67-64 win against Marshall in late November of 2023, King battled foul trouble and scored two points to go with a pair of rebounds and blocked shots.
She played high school ball at Worthington Christian, where she was a 1,000-point career scorer and earned first-team Ohio Division 3 honors as a senior. King is Worthington Christian’s all-time leading rebounder with 964.