STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team piled up the Southeastern Conference honors from league coaches Tuesday.
MSU coach Vic Schaefer was named SEC co-Coach of the Year as well as one of 10 semifinalists for Naismith National Coach of the Year.
Victoria Vivians and Martha Alwal were named second-team All-SEC. Alwal also claimed her third-straight selection to the All-Defensive team, while Vivians joined Morgan William on the All-Freshman team.
Schaefer shared coach of the year honors with South Carolina’s Dawn Staley after guiding the Bulldogs (26-5, 11-5 SEC) to a third-place finish in the SEC. The team’s overall win total and 11 wins in the league are school records.
The second-team selection added another accolade to Alwal’s resume. The second-team honor was the second of her career. She was a first-team selection and co-defensive player of the year last season. Alwal leads the SEC in blocked shots (2.4 per game). She has a chance to become the second player in SEC history to lead the league in blocks all four years.
In SEC play, Alwal averaged 11 points and 7.2 rebounds.
Vivians led the SEC in scoring at 15.0 points per game. The four-time SEC Freshman of the Week and USBWA National Freshman of the Week averaged a team-high 17.7 ppg. against ranked foes.
William averaged 9.0 ppg., 7.3 in SEC play. She led all freshmen and ranked fourth with 3.6 assists per game. She also led the SEC with 129 made free throws and converted 83.8 percent of her tries, second highest in the SEC and third best by a freshman in the nation.
Ole Miss’ Tia Faleru was a first-team All-SEC pick, while A’Queen Hayes was named to the All-Freshman team.
South Carolina’s Tiffany Mitchell was named SEC Player of the Year for the second-consecutive year, while A’ja Wilson as named SEC Freshman of the Year.
Texas A&M’s Jordan Jones was named defensive player of the year, Kentucky’s Jennifer O’Neill was named sixth player of the year, and South Carolina’s Aleighsa Welch was named scholar-athlete of the year.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.