UNBer earns national hoop awards
Rookie Claire Colborne made UNB women's basketball history at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national awards banquet Thursday night in Windsor, Ont.
Colborne stepped in as a rookie starter with the V-Reds and contributed instantly, scoring 18.6 points per game, tops among all rookies in the CIS and fifth in the country overall.
The six foot wing was second in the AUS and fifth in the country in three-point shooting, dropping 45.5 per cent of her shots from beyond the arc. She scored 20 points or more 11 times in the 20 regular season games in which she played, including a career high 29 points in her second game.
"Claire had an immediate impact on our team, was a scoring threat from our very first game, and continued that trend," said UNB coach Jeff Speedy. "She led all CIS rookies in scoring by a wide margin and to be ranked fifth overall in CIS scoring as a freshman is a truly great accomplishment."
Colborne helped lead UNB, which finished out of the playoffs last season, back to post season play with a 14-6 mark, good for second in the AUS.
She had help in that department from graduating post player Amanda Sharpe of Fredericton, who capped off her career at UNB with a selection as first-team all-Canadian. She was the Most Valuable Player in the AUS and the winner of the award for academic and athletic excellence and community service within the AUS. But it was University of Windsor sophomore Jessica Clemencon who won the Nan Copp Award as player of the year and Jill Humbert of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies who won the Sylvia Sweeney Award, one of three major award winners from the Huskies.
Katie Miyazaki of the Huskies, who transferred from the Simon Fraser Clan, won the defensive player of the year award for the second straight year, while Saskatchewan coach Lisa Thomaidis won the Peter Ennis Award as CIS coach of the year for the second time in her 13-year career.
The winner of the Tracy MacLeod Award for determination and perseverance was Memorial SeaHawks veteran Brittany Dalton.
The senior guard missed a season and a half after tearing the ACL in her knee early in her freshman season in 2007.
This season, in a game just before the holiday break, she tore the ACL in the same knee for the second time. But with an aggressive rehabilitation program, and wearing a brace on the knee, she returned to action for the SeaHawks in time for the AUS playoffs, which Memorial hosted.
The Cape Breton Capers won the AUS championship and will face the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, who qualified for the tournament by winning the CIS Eastern Regional, held at the lady Beaverbrook Gym last weekend.
The Varsity Reds, who hosted the Eastern regional after losing the AUS final to the Capers, were eliminated in the semifinal when they lost to the Western Mustangs. The Blues went on to upset the Mustangs in the regional final the next day.
St. Francis Xavier X-Women, who finished third in the Atlantic championship tournament but proceeded to knock off the Carleton Ravens in the Central Regional final, are also in attendance at the eight-team tournament. Those teams will play a rematch to kick off the tournament today.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier will play Saskatchewan, and Quebec champion Laval Rouge et Or will take on top seed and tournament host Windsor in the other first round matchups.
Joining Sharpe as members of the first all-Canadian team were Clemencon of Windsor, Kim Tulloch of Saskatchewan, Anneth Him-Lazarenko of the McGill Martlets, and second year guard Justine Colley of the Saint Mary's Huskies.
Colborne was joined on the all-rookie team by Stephanie Kleysen of the University of Winnipeg, Kaylah Barrett of Concordia, Sarah Wierks of Fraser Valley, and Jill Stratton of the University of Toronto.