MAAC Announces 2014-15 Women's Basketball Major Award Winners
MAAC Sports
ALBANY. N.Y. – Iona College senior guard Damika Martinez has been announced as the 2014-15 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Women’s Basketball Player of the Year by the leagues 11 head coaches.
Martinez, a 5-foot-7, senior guard from Meriden, Conn., claims her third consecutive MAAC Player of the Year award. A unanimous selection to the All-MAAC First Team in 2015 for the third consecutive season. Martinez made history in 2015 as she became the MAAC’s All-Time leading scorer on February 20 after recording her 2,468th point. She is also the MAAC’s All-Time career leader in three-point field goals made with 309. The 2013 & 2014 MAAC Player of the Year finishes the regular season leading the conference and ranking third nationally in scoring averaging 24.2 points per game and currently holds 2,569 career points, ranking first among active leaders in the nation. Martinez has scored in double figures in all 29 games this season, with 21 20-point efforts, and six games of 30 or more points. A 2014 AP All-American Honorable Mention and All-Met Player of the Year selection, Martinez leads the MAAC in made free throws registering 117 points from the charity stripe this season. Martinez has been named MAAC Player of the Week a league best four times this season. Additionally, Martinez has been named a finalist for the 2015 Nancy Lieberman Award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s top point guard in NCAA Division I women’s basketball.
Siena College freshman forward Margot Hetzke has been named the unanimous choice as the 2014-15 MAAC Rookie of the Year. The 5-foot-11 Penfield, N.Y. native led all first year players around the league in scoring averaging 13.8 points per game, which was good for the fifth best mark in the league. Leading the Saints in scoring during her freshman campaign, Hetzke scored a career high 29 points in her first game with Siena and ended the season with four 20 point efforts. Hetzke pulled down 7.3 rebounds per game and shot 45.1 percent from the floor and contributed two double-doubles on the year. Hetzke was a unanimous choice to the All-Rookie team, was selected to the All-MAAC Third Team and was named the MAAC Rookie of the Week nine times this season, while receiving five ECAC weekly honors.
The 2014-15 MAAC Sixth Player of the Year is Maria Napolitano of Quinnipiac University. Napolitano, a 5-foot-9 junior guard from Cincinnati, Ohio, shot 35.7 percent from the field this season, as she has averaged 6.9 points, 1.8 rebounds and has shot 63.6 percent from the charity stripe while playing just over 16 minutes of action per game off the bench this season for the Bobcats. Playing in all 31 games for Quinnipiac this season, Napolitano hit on 33 percent of her shots from beyond the arc and added 1 assist per game. She scored a season high 19 points on January 18th and had 6 games this season scoring double digit points. Napolitano finished out the 2015 regular season strong with a 17 point effort in the Bobcat’s final game, once again coming off the bench.
Siena College senior guard Tehresa Coles was selected as the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year. Coles, a 5-foot-10 senior guard from Loudonville, N.Y., was voted as the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 3.1 steals per game for the Saints which ranks first in the league and 16th in the country. An All-MAAC Second Team selection, Coles set the Saints All-Time steals record on February 19th and sits at 298 career steals, ranking third among active leaders in the nation and eighth all time in MAAC history. She averages 5.1 rebounds per outing, including 2.1 offensive rebounds per game which ranks 10th in the conference this season. On the offensive side, Coles contributes 13.5 points per game and 2.9 assists per game this season. She joined Siena’s 1,000 point club on January 24th and finished the season with 377 points.
The 2014-15 season culminates with the MAAC Basketball Championships at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. Tickets can be purchased here.
The MAAC will host the NCAA Women's Basketball Sweet Sixteen Albany Regional at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. Tickets can be purchased here.
For the full women’s basketball schedule, visits maacsports.com and remember to follow the conversation on twitter using #MAACHoops and #MAACHoops15.