Heather Hennings and Chasity Oxendine were both selected to the Hoops and Dreams senior all-star basketball team during the annual competition and showcase held at Elon College Sept. 16.

Hennings and Oxendine are both seniors on the Union Pines basketball team, as well as key players on the Sandhills Cyclones AAU 17-and-under basketball team.

The Hoops and Dreams is a showcase event held each year for senior basketball players mainly from North Carolina, South Carolina (but this year there were participants from Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia) in which the girls play three scrimmage games in front of college coaches and recruiters. The teams for the scrimmages are picked from random.

The Hoops and Dreams organization prepares recruiting reports for its affiliation of 90 plus colleges and keeps the files updated. Some of the coaches on hand this year were from UNC, NC State, Elon, Lees-McRae, UNC-C, Mt. Olive, Coastal Carolina, Gardner Webb and Appalachian State.

The thing that makes the all-star game selection so prestigious is that the college coaches in attendance are the ones who vote for the players named to the team. The coaches vote them in for one more look, as the all-star game is the final event of the day.

Picked to the all-star game from a field of 115 players, Oxendine and Hennings both said they were honored and somewhat surprised about being selected.