Big South Announces 2020-21 Women's Basketball Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) -- High Point junior guard Skyler Curran and Panthers’ head coach Chelsea Banbury have been voted the 2020-21 Big South Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, by the league’s head coaches, it was announced Friday. The panel voted Gardner-Webb guard/forward Alasia Smith Freshman of the Year and Longwood’s Akila Smith as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Campbell’s Lauren McNamara-Clement was voted Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the league’s Sports Information Directors.
Curran (Clemmons, N.C.) is the second consecutive High Point Panther to be voted Player of the Year and the fifth overall. She concluded the regular-season second in the Big South in scoring (17.8 points) and sixth in rebounds with 7.1. She has made the fourth-most 3-pointers in the country with 80, and her 3.2 per game average is seventh nationally. Curran leads the Big South with a 42.6 three-point clip, which is among the Top 25 in Division I, and she is also the league’s top free throw shooter with an 89.9 percentage. Her 45.1 overall field goal percentage is seventh in the conference, she was one of four Big South players with a 30-point game in 2020-21, she led the league with 10 20-point efforts -- five of which were 25+ -- and posted four double-doubles. In 20 Big South games, Curran averaged 17.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, drained 43.8 percent of her three-point attempts (60-137), shot 90.5 percent from the charity stripe (57-63) and recorded a 46.3 field goal clip (113-244). Her 446 total points are in the Top 20 nationally.
In the Player of the Year voting, Curran received six first-place votes and 141 total points from the panel, ahead of UNC Asheville’s Nadiria Evans (124 points, two first-place votes) and Longwood’s Kyla McMakin (122 points, two first-place votes).
Banbury earns her first Coach of the Year honor in just her second season leading the Panthers, and has now coached back-to-back Big South Player of the Year honorees. She led High Point to the outright 2020-21 Big South regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hercules Tires Women’s Basketball Championship -- the program’s first since 2013-14 -- with a 17-3 record among 19 overall victories. The Panthers lead the Big South in scoring (72.5), scoring margin (+10.2), field goal percentage (42.5), 3-point percentage (36.1), 3-point defense (23.8 percent allowed), assists (14.4), and 3-pointers per game with 10.48, which is just shy of the league’s single-season record. HPU’s 17 Big South wins are a program record, and in Big South games this season the Panthers were tops with a +11.8 scoring margin, 43.2 field goal percentage, 35.4 field goal defense, 37.0 3-point percentage, 23.8 3-point defense and 10.4 3-pointers per contest. High Point had a 10-game Big South win streak from Dec. 19-Jan. 22, and strung together a 7-game league win streak from Feb. 5-25.
Banbury received nine first-place votes and 29 total points in the voting, ahead of Longwood’s Rebecca Tillett (19 points).
Alasia Smith (Johnson City, Tenn.) is the first Runnin’ Bulldog to receive the Big South’s Freshman of the Year award. A five-time Big South Freshman of the Week honoree in 2020-21, Smith was the league’s top scoring freshman with 11.4 points per game, and third overall in the conference with 8.3 rebounds. She was second in steals (2.6), sixth in field goal shooting (45.9) and leads the Big South with 4.0 offensive rebounds per game. Smith had three double-doubles and two games with 20+ points. In Big South action, she appeared in 17 games against league foes and averaged 11.7 points, 8.1 boards, 47.4 percent from the floor, 2.8 steals, and a conference-best 3.9 offensive caroms. Smith received eight first-place votes and 40 points, just ahead of High Point’s Claire Wyatt (three first-place votes and 37 points) and USC Upstate’s McKinley Brooks-Sumpter (19 points).
Akila Smith (Orlando, Fla.) led the Big South in both rebounding with 10.2 and blocked shots with 3.4, and ranked third with 2.0 steals per game during the regular-season. Her 79 total blocks and per game average are the highest in the Big South since 2014-15, and she broke the conference single-game record with 11 rejections vs. Winthrop on Jan. 15. Smith had five games with at least five blocks and nine games with at least three steals. She guards positions 1-5, and her 6.3 overall defensive rebounds per game rank second in the conference. In Big South games, Smith averaged league-bests of 9.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks, was second with 6.1 defensive rebounds and third with 1.9 steals. Smith collected 26 points and eight first-place votes in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, ahead of Presbyterian College’s Trinity Johnson (11 points and one first-place vote).
McNamara-Clement is a 3.913 student studying Social Work. She appeared in all 20 regular-season games with 7.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and ranked second in the Big South with 1.6 blocks per game. McNamara-Clement is Campbell’s SAAC President and represents the conference as part of the NCAA Student-Athlete Engagement Group.
Joining Curran on the All-Conference First-Team are Evans, McMakin, Akila Smith and Campbell’s Shy Tuelle. The entire 2020-21 All-Conference team is as follows:
2020-21 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ALL-CONFERENCE
First-Team All-Conference
Skyler Curran, G, Jr., High Point
Nadiria Evans, G, Sr., UNC Asheville
Kyla McMakin, G, Soph., Longwood
Akila Smith, F, Jr., Longwood
Shy Tuelle, G, Jr., Campbell
Second-Team All-Conference
Jenson Edwards, G, R-Soph., High Point
Taya Bolden, F, R-Sr., Campbell
Lauren Bevis, G, Soph., Gardner-Webb
Nylah Young, F, Soph., Hampton
Kai Carter, F, Soph., UNC Asheville
Honorable Mention All-Conference
Jade Compton, G, Sr., Presbyterian College
Trinity Johnson, G, Jr., Presbyterian College
Jhessyka Williams, G, Jr., Gardner-Webb
Tionna Carter, F, Soph., Presbyterian College
Tra’Dayja Smith, G, Sr., Longwood
All-Freshman Team
Alasia Smith, G/F, Gardner-Webb
Claire Wyatt, G, High Point
McKinley Brooks-Sumpter, G, USC Upstate
Adriana Shipp, G, Longwood
Cydney Johnson, G, High Point
All-Academic Team
Lauren McNamara-Clement, F, Sr., Campbell
Tori Gittens, G, Jr., Charleston Southern
Nia Lee, G/F, Sr., Gardner-Webb
Alyssa Sweeney, G, Jr., Hampton
Jenson Edwards, G, R-Soph., High Point
Mallory Odell, F, Sr., Longwood
Tionna Carter, F, Soph., Presbyterian College
Tina Lindenfeld, F, Sr., Radford
Tamiah Lewis, G, Sr., UNC Asheville
Maya Timberlake, G/F, Soph., USC Upstate
Sydney Hunter, F, Soph., Winthrop
Player of the Year
Skyler Curran, G, Jr., High Point
Freshman of the Year
Alasia Smith, G/F, Gardner-Webb
Defensive Player of the Year
Akila Smith, F, Jr., Longwood
Coach of the Year
Chelsea Banbury, High Point
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Lauren McNamara-Clement, F, Sr., Campbell