The past two seasons, much of the talk surrounding the MSU women's basketball team was about the duo of Liz Shimek and Lindsay Bowen, who finished last season as the school's two leading scorers.

But waiting in the wings the whole time was guard Victoria Lucas-Perry, who finished third on the team in scoring last season but often was overshadowed by her older teammates.

Now a senior, Lucas-Perry has stepped into the limelight and established herself as MSU's most versatile player and its leader on and off the court.

"Victoria has an awful lot of character," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "She is somebody that never backs down, really gets after it."

Against Indiana State last Friday, Lucas-Perry scored a career-high 30 points, then followed that up by scoring 24 in a road win against Houston. She grabbed nine rebounds and had a team-high three steals Wednesday against Rhode Island.

For the season, Lucas-Perry ranks first on the team in scoring (14.0 per game), steals (2.8) and 3-pointers made (12), second in rebounding (7.2) and third in assists (3.0).

"She has played very aggressive," McCallie said. "She's a fantastic shooter, and that might be the easier part of what she has to do because of her rebounding and her assists."

But just as important to the Spartans' success has been Lucas-Perry's ability to fill the leadership void left by Shimek and Bowen. She is one of MSU's co-captains for the second consecutive season.

"I always try to pride myself in being a good example on and off the court — in school, my activities and how I help out in the community," she said. "To know that Coach had enough faith in me to pick me as a captain for two years in a row says a lot."

Lucas-Perry has started 68 of 107 career games, including 38 of the last 39 games, but she cites her sophomore season as the major turning point of her career. Lucas-Perry secured a starting spot early in the season, then played a key role in MSU's run to the national championship game, averaging almost seven points a game in the tournament.

"Going into the Final Four and playing in the national championship game and coming up big in some of those games really helped my confidence and really showed my ability and what I could do," she said.

Lucas-Perry spent the summer after that season playing in Belgium and the Netherlands with the Big Ten Women's Basketball Foreign Tour team, averaging 8.2 points per game and leading the team in rebounding.

"That was a great experience because I got to know different players from different teams and play overseas," she said. "It was a great experience to see the world and play basketball."

Lucas-Perry also spent this past summer playing for USA Basketball's Under-20 team in the FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico City. That international experience has given Lucas-Perry a better chance of pursuing a basketball career after MSU, either in the WNBA or overseas.

"Playing USA definitely gave me a feel of what it'd be like at the next level," she said. "All you're doing is basketball with two-a-days and really playing with the best players in the country. You really have to step your game up and elevate your game as a person and as a player."

And if Lucas-Perry is able to make the jump to the next level, it likely will be because of her versatility.

"It's about not being able to do one thing," she said. "When you play at the next level, everyone is a complete player. They can score, they can play defense, they can rebound, they can do it all. So the more that you can do, the better off you are and the better chance you have."

But despite her dreams of continuing her playing career, Lucas-Perry is keeping her options open. She has gone through interviews to go to dental school at Michigan.

"That's where I want to go, even though it's our rival school," she said, laughing. "At the end of the year, I want to be able to say that I did my best and take advantage of the opportunities as they come."