NEW ORLEANS – Texas State's Taeler Deer and South Alabama's Chyna Ellis were awarded top honors on Monday as the Sun Belt Conference announced its 2018 women’s basketball all-conference teams and individual awards.
Deer, a senior, earned the Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Player of the Year award, while Ellis earned her second overall Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year honor. Voting for the individual awards and All-Sun Belt teams were conducted by the league’s 12 head coaches along with a selected media panel.
Ellis' teammate, freshman Savannah Jones earned the Freshman of the Year award while Troy's Sky'Lynn Holmes received Newcomer of the Year honors. Little Rock's Joe Foley was named Coach of the Year, his fifth such accolade and second consecutive.
Deer's play was instrumental in the success of the Bobcats this season. The Houston, Texas, native averaged 17.1 points per game during the season. She ranks in the top three in the Sun Belt in scoring, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and steals. Deer led the Bobcats with five double-doubles on the year and recorded the third-highest scoring output in the Sun Belt with 44 points in the team’s opener against Texas Tech.
Deer is the 16th woman in Bobcat history to score more than 1,000 career points and is just the third in program history to score at least 1,000 points and dish out more than 300 assists.
Ellis has been a dominant force on defense for the Jaguars this season. The Sun Belt all-time leader in blocks tallied 93 during the regular season, leading the league. She has totaled 231 blocks in her career. Ellis posted 16 games this season with three or more blocks and averaged 3.19 blocks for the season, which ranks seventh in the NCAA. She had a career high 10 blocks earlier this season setting a Mitchell Center record. Additionally, she averaged 13.8 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game for the No. 5 seeded Jaguars.
Jones came off the bench every game this season for the Jags posting 12.4 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game. She scored 10 or more points in 19 of her 28 games played. Her 58 three-pointers made rank second in program history for a freshman and just six from top-five all-time. She leads all freshmen in that category as well.
Holmes, a transfer from Tyler Junior College, led the Trojans in rebounds with an 8.5 per game average, ranking her fourth overall in the Sun Belt. She posted 21 rebounds in a game earlier this season, setting a new Trojan Arena record and one shy of Troy's single-game Division 1 record. Holmes tallied four double-doubles on the season and posted double-digit scoring in a game ten times this season.
Foley claimed his fifth Sun Belt Coach of the Year honor after leading Little Rock to a 20-9 overall record and the Trojans’ third outright Sun Belt title in the last four years. Little Rock has won 20-plus games for the 11th time in the last 12 years and more than 12 conference games for the 12th straight year.
Joining Deer and Ellis on the All-Sun Belt First Team were Little Rock's Ronjanae DeGray, Coastal Carolina's Jas Adams and UTA's Rebekah VanDijk. Adams led the league in scoring this season with an 18.8 point average. VanDijk finished sixth in scoring but ranked in the top three in rebounds, field-goal percentage and blocks.
DeGray led the Trojans in points scored and rebounds and was second on the team in field-goal percentage.
The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Championship begins on Tuesday, March 6, at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. All 12 teams will compete for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. All games of the tournament will be broadcast by ESPN3, and available on the WatchESPN app, with the championship game set for a 6 p.m. CT tip, Sunday.
2017-18 SUN BELT WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTSEASON HONORS
All-Sun Belt First Team
Ronjanae DeGray, Little Rock (Junior, Forward, Odessa, Texas)
Jas Adams, Coastal Carolina (Senior, Guard, Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Chyna Ellis, South Alabama (Senior, Center, Cordova, Tenn.)
Rebekah VanDijk, UTA (Senior, Center, Nazareth, Texas)
Taeler Deer, Texas State (Senior, Guard, Houston, Texas)
All-Sun Belt Second Team
Akasha Westbrook, Arkansas State (Junior, Guard, Malvern, Ark.)
DJ Williams, Coastal Carolina (Sophomore, Guard, Moreno Valley, Calif.)
Toshua Leavitt, Texas State (Junior, Guard, Nixa, Mo.)
Kayla Robinson, Troy (Sophomore, Guard, Clyo, Ga.)
Amber Rivers, Troy (Sophomore, Forward, Birmingham, Ala.)
All-Sun Belt Third Team
Bayley Plummer, Appalachian State (Sophomore, Center, Thomasville, N.C.)
Monique Townson, Little Rock (Senior, Guard, Kansas City, Mo.)
Keanna Keys, Little Rock (Graduate, Forward, Sumrall, Miss.)
Simone Fields, Louisiana (Senior, Forward, San Antonio, Texas )
Crystal Allen, UTA (Senior, Guard, Fort Worth, Texas)
Sun Belt Player of the Year
Taeler Deer, Texas State (Senior, Guard, Houston, Texas)
Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year
Chyna Ellis, South Alabama (Senior, Center, Cordova, Tenn.)
Sun Belt Freshman of the Year
Savannah Jones, South Alabama (Freshman, Guard, Ocean Springs, Miss.)
Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year
Sky'Lynn Holmes, Troy (Junior, Forward, Mount Pleasant, Texas)
Sun Belt Coach of the Year
Joe Foley, Little Rock