Jackson, Kuehu named All-Big West second team
Hawaii women's basketball players Kamilah Jackson (left) and Shawna-Lei Kuehu (right) were both named to the All-Big West Conference second team.
Hawaii women’s basketball players Kamilah Jackson and Shawna Kuehu were both named to the All-Big West Conference second team on Monday morning.
Junior Ashleigh Karaitiana received a specialty award as the conference’s Best Sixth Player for her efforts off the bench.
That was the extent of league player awards for the Rainbow Wahine. No Wahine players were named honorable mentions or to the All-Freshman team.
UH (16-12, 10-6 Big West) is the No. 3 seed at the Big West tournament which starts Tuesday. Jackson made the first team last season in the Big West and was a second-teamer as a sophomore in the WAC, but UH’s leading scorer and rebounder (15.5 and 9.7) missed the final six games of the 2013-14 regular season with a right foot sprain.
Wahine coach Laura Beeman was asked on a Big West tournament conference call Monday if her players’ placement was a snub by the league’s coaches, who are responsible for the voting.
“You now, I don’t want to say ‘snub’ because I don’t want to be disrespectful to the other coaches in the conference,” Beeman said. “They obviously felt that … that’s the way the votes played out, let’s put it that way. I do feel that Mia not being first team, I was a bit shocked, with her overall body of work and what she’s been able to do both in conference and nationally. But again, that’s the way the votes shook out so at this point, we just have to play as a team. This is not an individual sport, so individual awards don’t really have any bearing on how you’re going to play.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Jason Flowers received the Big West Coach of the Year award for leading Cal State Northridge to the league’s regular-season title. Matadors junior guard Ashlee Guay was named the Big West Player of the Year.
On the BWC first team, Guay was joined by Ariana Elegado and Molly Schlemer of Cal Poly, Sydnee Fipps of UC Davis, Camille Buckley of UC Irvine and Brittany Crain of UC Riverside.
It was the second straight year UH took home the Sixth Player award, a distinction that went to Kuehu last season.
UH opens the conference tournament in the second round on Wednesday at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid against an opponent to be determined.
