Feb. 29, 2012

COMPLETE RELEASE | ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS LIST

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Temple's Shey Peddy has been named the 2012 Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Basketball Player and Defensive Player of the Year, in voting conducted among the league's 14 head coaches. Peddy is the first student-athlete to garner dual honors since fellow Owl Candice Dupree received the same two awards in 2005 and 2006.

The A-10 coaches also selected Dayton's Andrea Hoover as the Rookie of the Year, Charlotte's Epiphany Woodson as Sixth Player of the Year and Becca Wann of Richmond as the league's Most Improved Player. No. 19/22 St. Bonaventure's Jim Crowley was honored by his peers as Coach of the Year.

Peddy enters this week's Championship as the second-seeded Owls leading scorer, averaging 17.0 points and 3.1 steals per game. The four-time A-10 Player of the Week, who was also named the United States Basketball Writers Association's (USBWA) National Player of the Week this season, helped pace Temple to its second place finish in the A-10 regular season race with a 13-1 league mark. She led the A-10 in scoring in Conference games, averaging 18.6 points against league foes, while ranking second in steals per game.

Peddy is joined on the All-Conference first team by Dayton's Justine Raterman; Richmond's Abby Oliver and St. Bonaventure's duo of Jessica Jenkins and Megan Van Tatenhove.

The All-Conference second team consists of Charlotte's Jennifer Hailey; Duquesne's Wumi Agunbiade and Alex Gensler; along with Michelle Baker of Saint Joseph's and Temple's Kristen McCarthy.

In addition to Hoover and Woodson, the All-Conference third team includes Brittany Wilson of La Salle; Richmond's Genevieve Okoro and Xavier's Tyeasha Moss.

Hoover, a four-time Rookie of the Week selection, leads the league's freshman class and is ranked second on the Dayton squad with her 10.3 points per game average, while adding 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists each time out. The Bellbrook, Ohio, native is joined on the All-Rookie team by fellow Flyer Ally Malott; Charlotte's Hillary Sigmon; La Salle's Jada Payne; and Richmond's Liz Brown.

Woodson flourished coming off the bench for Charlotte, averaging 12.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in her 27.0 minutes on the floor each night. The Charlotte, N.C., native made an appearance in all 28 of the 49ers' contests during the regular season, while making 11 starts.

Wann, a two-sport standout in women's soccer and basketball, averaged just 13.0 minutes per game last season prior to her season-ending injury, but more than doubled her scoring average this season (8.7 ppg) and nearly doubled her time on the floor (24.0 mpg). Wann's spark helped lead the Spiders to their fourth-seed and second consecutive first-round bye in the upcoming Championship.

Crowley earns his second Conference Coach of the Year honor after guiding St. Bonaventure to a program-best 27-2 overall record and the Bonnies' first national ranking. SBU has won 16 straight games, and finished the regular season with the best road record in the nation (13-0). Bona became just the seventh team in A-10 history to complete a perfect league schedule, and earned the No. 1 seed at this week's Championship. Now in his 12th season as head coach and 16th overall year at St. Bonaventure, Crowley has led the Bonnies to four straight 20-win seasons.

St. Bonaventure headlines the 12-team field at the 2012 Buick Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Basketball Championship, to be held March 2-5 at Michael. J. Hagan `85 Arena on the campus of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. First round action commences at 11:30 am on Friday, March 2, as #8 La Salle takes on #9 Xavier before tournament host #5 Saint Joseph's takes the floor against #12 Fordham at 2:30 pm. Seventh-seeded Duquesne will take on #10 George Washington at 5:00 pm, while #6 Charlotte and #11 Saint Louis close out the first day of competition at 7:30 pm.

First round and quarterfinal matchups can be viewed live on www.atlantic10.com, free of charge. Sunday's semifinal contests will begin at Noon on March 4, and televised nationally on CBS Sports Network, while the title game of the 2012 A-10 Championship on Monday, March 5, will be shown live on ESPN2 and ESPN3 at 5:00 pm.