Hamson, Devashrayee, Chase receive WCC honors

LAS VEGAS — BYU freshman Sara Hamson was named this year’s West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Gonzaga junior forward Jill Barta was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year and her head coach Lisa Fortier was selected as the Coach of the Year for the third time in four seasons to cap a record-breaking season for the Bulldogs. Loyola Marymount junior Gabby Green was tabbed the Newcomer of the Year as announced Tuesday by the league office. 

All four individual awards - along with the All-West Coast Conference Teams and the All-Freshman Team - were voted on by the league's 10 head coaches.

Senior guard Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee and sophomore guard Brenna Chase, were named to the 10-member All-WCC First Team. Hamson was also named to the five-member All-Freshman Team. Chase was on last year’s All-Freshman Team.

Of the 10-member All-WCC First Team, six appeared on the 2017-18 preseason All-WCC squad. Barta is making her third-consecutive appearances on the All-WCC First Team while Stella Beck of Saint Mary’s, Cassie Devashrayee of BYU, GeAnna Luaulu-Summers of Pacific and Yasmine Robinson-Bacote of Pepperdine are making their second-consecutive First Team appearances.

Barta becomes the first Bulldog to claim the conference’s top honor since Taelor Karr claimed the award in the 2012-13 season, and she becomes the sixth Bulldog to earn the award. The junior averaged 17.5 points and 7.9 rebounds per game for the runaway league winners, shooting at a .474 field goal percentage and .856 free throw percentage. Barta finished in the WCC Top 10 in eight categories despite playing just 27 minutes per game in conference action. 

Hamson earned Defensive Player of the Year honors after a season that saw her lead the WCC and finish ranked No. 2 in the NCAA with her 4.3 blocks per game in all games played. She had two nine-block performances on the year and dominated the post as a freshman for the Cougars. She is the second-consecutive Cougar to win the award after Kalani Purcell also claimed the honor last season, and follows in the footsteps of her sister Jennifer Hamson who was the Defensive and Player of the Year in 2013-14 as the first student-athlete in conference history to earn both honors in the same season.

Green, a junior transfer from Call, took the league by storm as a stat-stuffer in her first season at Loyola Marymount. The guard averaged 11.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and a league-best 3.7 steals per game in conference play as a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. She also finished with an assist-turnover ratio of +1.9, good for fifth in the WCC, as she become the second-consecutive Lion to win the award after former teammate Jackie Johnson claimed the honor last season.

Lisa Fortier won her third conference crown in four years as head coach after guiding the Bulldogs to a 17-1 WCC record, the most conference wins in WCC history. Fortier’s team clinched the championship with three games remaining in the regular season, matching the quickest that a Gonzaga team has ever earned the outright title. The Bulldogs reeled off a 15-game winning streak midway through the season that at its peak ranked as the fourth-longest in the country en route to a 24-5 overall record.

All 10 West Coast Conference teams head to Las Vegas to compete for the 2018 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship and subsequent automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Tournament action tips off Thursday, March 1 at the Orleans Arena.

Women’s Basketball All-WCC Honors
Player of the Year: Jill Barta, Gonzaga
Coach of the Year: Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga
Defensive Player of the Year: Sara Hamson, BYU
Newcomer of the Year: Gabby Green, Loyola Marymount

 

2017-18 ALL-WCC FIRST TEAM

Name	Institution	Yr.	Pos.
Jill Barta	Gonzaga	R-Jr.	F
Stella Beck	Saint Mary’s	Sr.	G
Brenna Chase	BYU	Soph.	G
Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee	BYU	Sr.	G
Gabby Green	Loyola Marymount	Jr.	G
GeAnna Luaulu-Summers	Pacific	Sr.	G
Megan McKay	Saint Mary’s	Jr.	F
Yasmine Robinson-Bacote	Pepperdine	Jr.	F
Anna Seilund	San Francisco	Sr.	G
Aubrey Ward-El	San Diego	Sr.	G

 

2017-18 ALL-WCC SECOND TEAM

Name	Institution	Yr.	Pos.
Maya Hood	San Diego	Sr.	G
Sydney Raggio	Saint Mary’s	Jr.	F
Michaela Rakova	San Francisco	Sr.	G
Zykera Rice	Gonzaga	Jr.	F
Chandler Smith	Gonzaga	R-Jr.	G

 

2017-18 WCC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HONORABLE MENTION

Bree Alford, Loyola Marymount; Makenzie Cast, Loyola Marymount; Paige Fecske, Pepperdine; Jasmine Forcadilla, Saint Mary’s; Ameela Li, Pacific; Anaya Brooklyn McDavid, Pacific; Morgan McGwire, Santa Clara; Kalyn Simon, San Francisco; Darian Slaga, Portland; Julie Spencer, Portland

 

2017-18 WCC ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

Name	Institution	Yr.	Pos.
Sara Hamson	BYU	Fr.	C
Maddy Holland	Saint Mary’s	Fr.	G
Anaya Brooklyn McDavid	Pacific	Fr.	G
Myah Pace	San Diego	Fr.	G
Jenn Wirth	Gonzaga	Fr.	F