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Lady Cardinals Banquet Gives Fond Farewell to Seniors
April 30, 2009
BEAUMONT - The Lamar University women's basketball team gathered Wednesday night for their end of the year banquet, where honors and awards were handed out to the first lady Cardinals team to win 20 games since the early 1990's. After a rousing introduction of the 2008-09 Lady Cardinals players, dinner was served and the hardware was handed out. The awards ceremony started as head coach Larry Tidwell presented the Lady Cardinals three All Southland Conference selections their plaques from the conference office. Nikki Williams was given her second team all SLC plaque while Darika Hill was given her third team and SLC newcomer of the Year plaques. Brittney Williams, who was a member of the second team, was not able to attend the event. The first team award handed out was the Academic Honors award, which was presented to guard Ashley Crawford. Crawford has a 3.96 grade point average and is a permanent resident on the President's honor roll, while just being named the student of the year for Lamar University in the department of education. The Freshman of the Year award was given to Ang Green who averaged 8.8 points per game for Lamar this season. The Silsbee, Texas native was the leading scorer off the bench this season and she proved to be effective from behind the three point arc, knocking down 31.4 percent of her shots from deep. She was also solid from the free throw line, draining 74.5 percent from the charity stripe. The Newcomer of the Year award was presented to Hill, who garnered the same honor from the Southland Conference. She was a force for the Lady Cardinals this season, averaging 11 points and 7.1 rebounds per game which ranked third and second on the team respectively.
The Defensive Player of the Year award was given to Trashanna Smith, who was a force in the paint for the Lady Cards. The sophomore forward blocked 55 shots this season, which ranks as the second-most blocks in a single season for Lamar. She was also the leading rebounder on the team, averaging 8.3 boards per game, and became just the second player in school history to have a 20-20 double-double when she scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds at Northwestern State. The Offensive Player of the Year Ward and the Player of the Year Award were given to senior guard Nikki Williams, who was the driving force for the Lady Cardinals. She led the team in scoring with 14.3 points per game and passed out a team-high 130 assists while leading LU in free throws made with 90 and was second in three point filed goals made with 56. She was also the defensive leader on the perimeter for Lamar, picking up a team-high 66 steals. The final award of the night was the Fighting Heart Award which was named in honor of David Ess for his courageous ongoing battle with cancer and his unwavering support of Lady Cardinals basketball. The award, presented by Ess' daughters, was given to LU's three seniors, Reke, Spickler and Williams who never missed a practice or a game during their two years at Lamar. After the awards were handed out, a slideshow was presented as a recap of the outstanding season. Three songs were played during the slideshow, the first song honored the all the supporters of Lady Cards basketball, the second song honored the players and the third song honored the three seniors. 2008-09 Lady Cardinals Basketball Awards |
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