Lady Jacket Basketball Hands Out Season Awards (3/23/06)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings women’s basketball coach Kevin Woodin announced the Lady Yellowjackets’ annual team awards at a banquet Wednesday evening at the Holiday Inn Grand Montana.  Six student-athletes received individual awards.

The Yellowjackets were 18-9 overall and 9-3 in the Heartland Conference.  In their first year in the league the Lady Jackets were conference co-champions with St. Edward’s University. 

Michelle Lieber (Jr., Gillette, WY) was named the overall Team MVP.  The 6-foot-0 forward led the Yellowjackets in scoring (15.6 ppg), rebounding (10.2 rpg) and field goal percentage (67.1).  She was also selected as the Heartland Conference Co-Player of the Year.

Two Lady Jackets shared Offensive MVP honors.  Senior Tanya Petersen (Billings, MT) averaged 12.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.  She finished her career as the only Lady Yellowjacket with over 1,200 points, 600 rebounds, 200 assists, and 100 blocked shots.  She was also named to the All-Heartland Conference first team.  Freshman Alira Carpenter (Lewistown, MT) shared Offensive MVP honors with Petersen after averaging 11.7 points per game.  She made 45 three-pointers and was named the Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year.  Carpenter was also an All-Heartland honorable mention selection.

Woodin also handed out CO-Defensive MVP awards to Jenny Langford (Sr., Reedpoint, MT) and Jennifer Skrifvars (Jr., Brea, CA).  Both players were tenacious defenders on the perimeter, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opposition’s best guard.  Langford finished her career as the No. 2 all-time 3-point shooter at MSU Billings with 184 career threes and was named to the All-Heartland Conference honorable mention team.

The Lady Jackets’ Most Improved award went to freshman Jen Smith (Belgrade, MT).  Smith appeared in all 27 games and saw increasing playing time as the season went on.  She averaged 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds a game.

Senior guard Lisa Jellum (Gillette, WY) was named the team’s Most Inspirational Player.  One of two players to start all 27 games for the Jackets, Jellum averaged 6.7 points and a league-best 4.74 assists per game.  She also led the Heartland in assist/turnover ratio and finished her 128 assists this season rank seventh all-time at MSU Billings.

The Yellowjacket Award was given to senior guard Angie Lessard (Elizabeth, CO).  The award is given to the player who most exemplifies a Lady Yellowjacket student-athlete as voted on by her teammates.

Woodin also announced that Lieber and Skrifvars have been selected as team co-captains for 2006-2007.  The duo will be the only upperclassmen on the team after five seniors graduated this year.