Frazee, Maier, Darden, Green Garner Big South's Top Women's Basketball Awards
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Liberty junior guard/forward Megan Frazee and Lady Flames head coach Carey Green have been voted as the 2007-08 Big South Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, by the League’s head coaches, sports information directors and media panel, it was announced this evening at the Women’s Basketball Awards Banquet held at the Biltmore Country Club in Asheville, N.C. The voting panel voted High Point forward Mackenzie Maier Freshman of the Year and tabbed Radford senior center Kelli Darden as the League’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight year. Allyson Fasnacht of Liberty was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the League’s SIDs.
Frazee posted 11 20-point games and 13 10-rebound games this season, including six games with at least 20 points and 10 boards. She leads the Big South with 18.4 points per game and is tops in Conference-only games with 20.2 points per outing. Frazee was named Big South Player of the Week a League-high six times this season. She has 13 double-doubles on the year and is 19th on the Big South’s all-time career scoring chart with 1,325 points. Frazee ranks No. 11 in the nation with an 87 percent clip from the line. She owns the Big South’s single game rebounding high with 18 this season, a feat she has accomplished twice this season. Frazee earned 21 top votes and 215 points, ahead of Radford’s Kelli Darden, who received one No. 1 votes and 162 points.
Green coached his Lady Flames to a 26-3 overall record and an 11-1 Big South record during the 2007-08 season in which Liberty won its 10th Big South Conference Regular-Season Championship. Green had the Lady Flames in the national spotlight all season as they received votes in the national polls throughout the campaign, reaching as high at No. 27 in the coaches’ poll. The Lady Flames will be the top seed in the 2008 Advance Auto Parts Big South Women’s Basketball Championship and will receive a first-round bye in the Tournament. Green garnered 14 first-place votes and 49 points to finish ahead of Winthrop’s Bud Childers who picked up six top votes and 30 points.
Maier notched Freshman of the Year honors as she finished the regular-season averaging 12 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Maier was named the Big South’s Freshman of the Week a League-high four times this season. Defensively, Maier recorded 44 blocked shots this season and finished second in League-only games with 2.67 rejections per game. Maier received 14 top votes and 97 points in the voting.
Darden received Defensive Player of the Year honors as she reset the Big South single-season blocked shot record with 92 so far this season. She bested her previous record of 85 rejections last season. Darden also became the Big South’s all-time leader in career blocked shots as she has accumulated 287 blocks in career. She is No. 1 in the Big South and is ninth in the country with 3.0 swats per game. Darden picked up 16 first-place bids and 63 total points.
Charleston Southern’s Pam Tolbert and Liberty’s Moriah Frazee joined Megan Frazee on the All-Conference First Team, while Ashley Fann of Winthrop and Darden round out the list.
2007-08 Big South Conference Women’s Basketball Award Winners
First-team All-Conference
Megan Frazee, Liberty
Kelli Darden, Radford
Ashley Fann, Winthrop
Moriah Frazee, Liberty
Pam Tolbert, Charleston Southern
Second-team All-Conference
Johnette Walker, Radford
Mackenzie Maier, High Point
Ashton Barton, UNC Asheville
Vicky Blanchard, Coastal Carolina
Courtney Watkins, Liberty
All-Freshman Team
Mackenzie Maier, High Point
Taleia Moton, Radford
Jurica Hargraves, High Point
Crystal Robinson, Charleston Southern
Sydnei Moss, Coastal Carolina
Frances Fields, High Point
Academic All-Conference
Tina DeCarvalho, Charleston Southern
C.J. Ware, Coastal Carolina
Amy Will, High Point
Allyson Fasnacht, Liberty
Amy Jones, Presbyterian
Johnette Walker, Radford
Ana Baker, UNC Asheville
Ashley Fann, Winthrop
Player of the Year
Megan Frazee, Liberty
Defensive Player of the Year
Kelli Darden, Radford
Freshman of the Year
Mackenzie Maier, High Point
Coach of the Year
Carey Green, Liberty
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Allyson Fasnacht, Liberty