TRAHAN TOPS ALL-AMERICAN TEAM AS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Elizabeth City State player joined by Beckley, Brister, Cezat and Langen on first team
March 26, 2008
STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Celeste Trahan of Elizabeth City State
has been named the 2008 Daktronics NCAA Division II Women’s
Basketball Player of the Year. Trahan leads a list of 15
student-athletes honored by Division II sports information
directors for their efforts on the hardwood this season.
Daktronics is a world leader in programmable electronic signs,
electronic and digital displays and scoreboards. The team is voted
on by the Division members of College Sports Information Directors
of America (CoSIDA).
The 2008 women’s basketball All-America team is comprised of
two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore on the first team while
upperclassmen dominate the second and third teams released
Tuesday.
Trahan was joined by Lauren Beckley of Shippensburg, Emily Brister
of West Texas A&M, Katie Cezat of Hillsdale and Ashley Langen
of North Dakota on the Daktronics All-American First Team.
The second team is led by Vanessa Wilt of Cal State-San Bernardio,
followed by Kate Lynch of Southern Connecticut, Sheena Walton of
Tampa, Michelle Stueve of Emporia State and Jennifer Rushing of
Delta State.
The third team consists of Johannah Leedham of Franklin-Pierce,
Jeana Hoffman of South Dakota, Anna Atkinson of Wingate, Sarah Van
Horn of West Virginia Wesleyan and Syretha Marble of North Georgia
College & State.
Trahan was the 2008 Daktronics South Atlantic Regional Player of
the Year and was also give the Player of the Year Award by the
Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The senior center
from Stockton, Calif. was also named the conference’s
Defensive Player of the Year. Trahan averaged 23.7 poitns and 15.9
rebounds per game this season while shooting .522 from the floor.
She added 2.1 blocks, 2.4 steals and 1.4 assists per game to her
teams efforts. She leads the nation in scoring and rebounding is
No. 22 in blocked shots and No. 43 in field goal percentage. She is
the first woman in Division II history and the fourth overall to
record 2,000 points and 1,500 rebounds in a career. She is the
first woman in ECSU history and the fourth overall to have her
jersey retired. She was named the CIAA Player of the Week on eight
occasions and scored in double figures in every game this season,
registering a double-double in all but two contests. Trahan set a
career high 36 points against Mount Olive on Jan. 2 and matched the
total against Shaw on Feb. 2. She is a CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine
Academic All-District Third Team selection. She is her
school’s all-time leader in scoring, rebounding and blocked
shots. Trahan has amassed 84 career double-doubles in 109 career
games and averaged a double-double for her career with 19.7 points
and 14.1 rebounds per outing.
Cezat was second in the voting for Player of the Year after being
named the Daktronics North Central Region Player of the Year. The
junior forward from Plymouth, Mich. set school records for points
in a game (42 against Wayne State on Feb. 2) and rebounds in a game
(25 against Gannon on Jan. 26). She has also set single-season
school records for blocked shots (35), field goals made (242) and
rebounds (322). Cezat is averaging 23.3 points and 12.4 rebounds
per game this season, shooting .576 from the field and .803 from
the charity stripe. The junior was named the Great Lakes
Intercollegiate Athletics Conference South Division Player of the
Week six times overall and five times in a row. She finished the
regular season as the GLIAC’s leading scorer and rebounder,
and she ranked in the Top 10 in the a total of seven categories.
Cezat ranks second in the nation in scoring and fourth in
rebounding, helping her team to the GLIAC South Division title,
tying a school record 23 wins as of Feb. 23. She is just the second
player in school history to score 600 or more points in a
season.
Beckley, a sophomore from Fairfield, Pa., led Shippensburg with
22.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game this season while averaging
.505 from the floor and .828 from the charity stripe. She was the
2008 Daktronics East Region Player of the Year and is a finalist
for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American
team. She was the 2008 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
Player of the Year for 2008 as well as a First Team All-PSAC West
honoree after being named the 2007 PSAC West Rookie of the Year in
2007 and being a member of the conference’s first team as a
freshman last season as well. She was a 2007 Daktronics All-East
Region second team selection as a freshman and became the first
woman in PSAC history to score 1,000 career points as a sophomore.
She has scored 1,172 points in 56 career games for an average of
20.9 points per game, which is second in school history. After just
two seasons, she currently ranks 13th in school history in career
points. Beckley is just the fourth player in school history to
score 600 or more points in a single season, the first since
1995-96. She averaged .433 from the arc as she leads the PSCAC in
three-point field goal percentage, scoring and rebounding. She set
a new PSAC freshman scoring record last season with 548 points.
Brister, a junior from Amarillo, Texas, leads West Texas A&M
with 21.5 points per game this season, and in almost all major
statistical categories with the exception of field goal percentage,
three-point percentage and assists. Brister returns as the
Daktronics South Central Region Player of the Year for the second
straight time after being named to the all-region first team for
the third straight season. Brister was a third team Daktronics
All-American as a freshman after being named the Lone Star
Conference Freshman of the Year. She has received the LSC South
Division Player of the Year award all three seasons she has been in
college. Brister has led the Lady Buffs to sixth straight 20-plus
win seasons as she ranks seventh in the nation in points per game.
She is the second most prolific scorer in West Texas A&M
history and currently is just 20 points short of the school record.
Additionally, she is in the top five in WTAMU history in field
goals attempted, three-point field goals made, three-point field
goals attempted, free throws made, free throws attempted and
steals. She has scored 30-plus points nine times in her career and
has been held to single-digit scoring only twice (once each during
her freshman and sophomore years). She has been an honorable
mention All-American by WBCA twice, was the 2007 LSC Female Athlete
of the Year and the 2007 LSC South Division Player of the Year in
addition to earning first team all-conference honors all three
seasons in college. Brister led the nation as a freshman in 2006
with 4.1 steals per game, tying a school record for 132 steals in a
season.
Langen, a senior from Kennedy, Minn., was the 2008 Daktronics
North Central Region Player of the Year after averaging 16.0 points
and 10.6 rebounds per game. She is shooting .586 from the floor and
.795 from the charity stripe this season. She was a unanimous
selection to the Daktronics All-North Central Region First Team and
was also named to the WBCA All-Region team. Langen was named the
North Central Conference Co-Most Valuable Player and was named to
her fourth All-NCC team, just the seventh player in league history
to achieve such a distinction. She is a three-time NCC Player of
the Week this season and became just the second player in UND
history, third in NCC history and 16th in NCAA Division II history
to score 2,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds. Langen
is second on UND’s career scoring and rebounding lists and is
the schools all-time leader in free throws made (468). She is also
second in fiel goals made, field goal attempts, free throw
attempts, free throw percentage and games played. She set a school
record for rebounds in a single-season and led the NCC in
rebounding in 2008. For the second time in her career, Langen led
the NCC in field goal percentage during conference play and had a
conference-high 18 double-doubles this season. She reached double
figures in scoring in 26 of 31 games this season and grabbed at
least 10 rebounds 18 times. Langen was named UND’s Female
Scholar-Athlete of the Month for December.
2008 DAKTRONICS NCAA DIVISION II WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS
First Team
Lauren Beckley Shippensburg F 5-9 soph Fairfield, Pa.
**Emily Brister West Texas A&M G 5-9 jr Amarillo, Texas
Katie Cezat Hillsdale F 6-0 jr Plymouth, Mich.
Ashley Langen North Dakota C 6-2 sr Kennedy, Minn.