The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) announced its 2008 All-MEAC honorees at the MEAC Tip-Off Basketball Tournament Banquet on Monday evening at the North Hilton Raleigh.
Coppin State guard Shalamar Oakley was selected the Player of the Year as voted by the leagues’ Head Coaches and Sports Information Directors.
North Carolina A&T Head Coach Patricia Cage-Bibbs was selected by her counterparts as the 2008 Coach of the Year. Maryland Eastern Shore’s Casey Morton was chosen as the Rookie of the Year, while Corin Adams of Morgan State was named the Defensive Player of the Year.
Oakley helped the Lady Eagles conclude the regular-season with an eight game win streak en route to a 13-3 conference mark and 19-11 record overall. The 5-8 senior led the league in scoring with 17.6 points and was ranked among the top ten in the MEAC in field goal percentage, assists, and free-throw percentage. She posted 20 or more points 10 times this season, including a MEAC high 34-point performance.
Cage-Bibbs guided her team to their first regular-season title since the 1989-90 season. Under her tutelage, the Lady Aggies posted a school record for wins in a season with a 23-6 regular season mark, including a 15-1 mark in MEAC play and will enter the tournament as the number one seed.
Morton led her rookie counterparts in scoring (11.1), made three-point field goals (1.33) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.89). She also led her team with 2.9 assists and recorded 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. She recorded 16 double-digit point performances during her stellar rookie campaign.
Adams is a top the MEAC and third in the nation with 4.1 steals per game. The 5-7 guard led her team in points, steals and assists and ranked third on the team with 5.3 rebounds per game. She was the only player in the league to record a triple-double this season with 11 points, 10 assists and 11 steals.
Adams joins Oakley on the All-MEAC first team along with Coppin State’s Rashida Suber, North Carolina A&T’s Amber Bland, and April McBride of Maryland Eastern Shore.
The All-MEAC second team consists of North Carolina A&T’s Ta’Wuana Cook and Brittanie Taylor-James, Delaware State’s Racquel Collier and Katreem Palmer, Rachel Butler of Hampton, and Maryland Eastern Shore’s Tiffany Reid.
The 2008 All-MEAC rookie team featured Maryland Eastern Shore’s Morton, Bethune-Cookman guard Demetria Frank, Norfolk State guard Raychele Payne, Hampton guard Quanneisha Perry and North Carolina A&T guard/forward Jalessa Sams.
The MEAC Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 11- March 15, 2008 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C. The women’s games tip-off Tuesday, March 11 at 11 a.m. with #10 Bethune-Cookman taking on #7 South Carolina State. North Carolina A&T, the 2008 regular-season champions, will face off against the winner of the #8 Howard v. #9 Florida A&M on Wednesday, March 12. The Lady Hornets of Delaware State will attempt to defend their 2007 MEAC title on Thursday, March 13 at Noon.
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