MAC Women's Basketball Announces Post Season Honors
MAC Announces 2007 All-Conference Teams and Award Winners
CLEVELAND -- Highlighted by the first tie in history (since 1983) for the league’s Player of the Year, the Mid-American Conference women’s basketball post season honors were awarded tonight at the Marriott Key Center in downtown Cleveland. The awards banquet signals the tip-off of this week’s conference festivities that conclude a week from today with the conference’s championship game at Quicken Loans Arena.
Ali Mann of Bowling Green and Carrie Moore of Western Michigan, both seniors, were recognized in voting by league coaches, sports information directors and media, as the player of the year honorees. The talented duo was joined on the first team all-conference team by Julie DeMuth of Ball State, Amanda Jackson from Miami and Stephanie Raymond from Northern Illinois.
Joining Mann and Moore with specialty award recognition were Curt Miller of Bowling Green as Coach of the Year; Amber Flynn of Bowling Green as Sixth Man of the Year; Alyssa Pittman and Patrice McKinney of Eastern Michigan as Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively.
Mann directed the Falcons to the 2007 MAC Championship as BGSU fashioned a 15-1 record. Mann led the team in scoring (15.8 ppg), rebounds (5.5 rpg) and field goal shooting (53.6 pct.) and also handed out 75 assists. Mann becomes the sixth player in league history to be recognized as the Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year (2004) and MAC Tournament MVP (2006) during her career.
Moore has led the nation in scoring since the beginning of the season (25.3 ppg) and was also named a second team Academic All-American for her 3.79 grade point average in her major of Journalism. Moore started the season by scoring 81 points at The Paradise Jam in competition against Marquette, Xavier and Auburn, breaking the tournament record previously held by Alana Beard of Duke. Moore has scored 780 points this season, which is 28 points shy of tying the MAC record for points in a season. She ranks third all-time in league history with 2,171 points. This marks Moore’s third consecutive first-team selection.
DeMuth led the Cardinals to 22 wins, the second most in school history, and to the West Division championship with a 13-3 record. DeMuth paced the Cardinals balanced scoring attack with 15.4 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game. Her 10 double-doubles ranks second in the league this season.
Raymond led the Huskies to a 17-win season with her team best 18.2 points per game, the second highest scoring average in the MAC. She also leads the MAC in assists with 6.5 apg and in free throw shooting at 90.7 percent. She ranks third nationally in free throw shooting and seventh in assists.
Jackson came back from a knee injury that limited her to one game last year to average 17.7 points per game. She also led the RedHawks in steals with 78. In conference games, Jackson boosted her average 20.0 points per game. Twice this season she scored 31 points in a game.
In his sixth year as head coach at BGSU, Miller guided the Falcons to the 2007 MAC Championship, the program’s third consecutive league title. This also makes the third consecutive Coach of the Year honor for Miller. The Falcons, 26-3 overall and 15-1 in the MAC, have been ranked in the Top 20 most of the season and are listed at No. 19 in the Associated Press poll and No. 18 in the ESPN/USA TODAY Coaches poll going into the MAC Tournament.
Pittman helped the Eagles to a second place finish in the West Division with her 12.0 points per game, the second highest total among all freshmen. Pittman leads the MAC with her 2.74 3-point goals per game and her 39.2 percent field goal shooting from 3-point range ranks fifth. She started all 16 games in conference play and appeared in 27 games overall.
McKinney is the first EMU selection to win Defensive Player of the Year honors. She had 67 steals and 25 blocked shots on the season in leading a defense that ranked second in the league by allowing just 64.0 points per game.
Flynn apeared in all 29 games for the Falcons and was instrumental in BGSU securing its league title. She averaged 21.2 minutes per game off the bench and contributed 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 60.5 percent from the field.
Second-team all-league recognition went to Kent State teammates La’kia Stewart and Kristin Peoples, as well as Bowling Green’s Kate Achter, Eastern Michigan’s Sarah VanMetre and Ohio’s Lauren Kohn.
Third team selections are Niki McCoy of Akron, Carin Horne from Bowling Green, Patrice McKinney from Eastern Michigan, Kristin Wiener from Northern Illinois and Rachel Frederick from Ohio.
The honorable mention quintet is Kelsey Corbin from Ball State, Liz Honegger from Bowling Green, Heather Turner from Buffalo, Ann Skufca from Central Michigan and Danielle Bishop from Toledo.
Also tabbed were the next wave of MAC stellar players - the league’s All-Freshman squad. In addition to Pittman, on the team are Sarah Tokodi from Akron, Audrey McDonald from Ball State, Jamilah Humes from Kent State and Jennifer Bushby from Ohio.
