All-MIAC Women's Basketball TeamWINONA, Minn. — The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced its women's basketball post-season awards on Thursday — and the MIAC spotlight certainly had a Cardinal red glow to it.
Six members of the MIAC regular-season champion Saint Mary's University women's basketball team — not to mention head coach
Mandy Pearson — earned conference honors, highlighted by
Courtney Euerle (Litchfield, Minn.) being named MIAC Player of the Year and Pearson earning her second straight Coach of the Year honor.
Joining Euerle and Pearson in the MIAC limelight were
Bridget Pethke (New London, Wis.),
Mariam Awoniyi (Country Club Hills, Ill.),
Emma Schaefer (Falcon Heights, Minn.),
Darcey Rice (Eagan, Minn.) and
Shelby Auseth (Wanamingo, Minn.).
Euerle picked up three conference post-season honors, being named MIAC Player of the Year, First-Team All-MIAC and a member of the MIAC All-Defensive Team. Pethke joined Euerle as a First-Team All-MIAC selection and MIAC All-Defensive Team selection, while Awoniyi and Schaefer were All-First-Year Team picks. Rice and Auseth, meanwhile, were honorable-mention All-MIAC picks.
After not scoring more than 17 points in her first three seasons as a Cardinal, Euerle has eclipsed the 20-point mark six times this season — including a career-high 22 points on three separate occasions — while leading the team in both scoring (13.4 ppg) and rebounding (7.4 rpg) en route to her First-Team All-MIAC and Player of the Year honors. Euerle — who was also named to the MIAC All-Defensive Team for a third straight year — heads into Friday's NCAA tournament opener against UW-Oshkosh owning four double-doubles this season, while scoring 10 or more points in 20 of the team's 27 games.
Pethke is in the midst of a career sophomore season, setting career-bests in virtually every offensive category, including scoring average (10.8 ppg), field goals (82), 3-point field goals (25), free throws (103), rebounds (97) and assists (124). The sophomore guard scored a career-high 32 points in SMU's conference win over St. Olaf on Jan. 29, while also setting single-game career-bests in rebounds (8) vs. Gustavus on Feb. 15 and assists (8) against Augsburg on Feb. 22. Pethke's 124 assists this season are not only tops among MIAC players, but also rank No. 6 in Cardinal program history.
Awoniyi and Schaefer took the league by storm in their first collegiate seasons. Awoniyi averaged 7.3 ppg and 5.7 rpg in 25 games, while Schaefer scored at a 4.3 ppg clip, dished out 47 assists and collected 18 steals.
Auseth, like Pethke, is having a stellar sophomore season, averaging a career-best 10.7 ppg, while also averaging 5.1 rpg. She finished second on the team in 3-pointers with 26, and chipped in 25 assists and 32 steals. Rice has saved her best season for her senior campaign, averaging 8.1 ppg and boasting a team-leading 55 3-pointers — which is the fourth-most in program history and just five shy of the school record 60, set by Ashley Luehmann in 2004-05.
The Cardinals picked up their first MIAC regular-season title since the 1985-86 season this year, going 20-2 in league play — a mark that included a season-high 16-game winning streak — while also making its first-ever appearance in the MIAC Tournament title game.
As part of the conference-wide sportsmanship initiative, the MIAC also announced the seventh annual All-MIAC Sportsmanship team for women's basketball, which included SMU's Rice.
