March 13, 2008

Carpenter Tabbed Second Team Daktronics All-West Region

BILLINGS, Mont. – Adding more postseason hardware to her collection, Montana State Billings junior women’s basketball standout Alira Carpenter was named Daktronics All-West Region second team Thursday.  This is the fourth postseason honor that Carpenter has garnered this season.

Carpenter, a native of Lewiston, Mont., averaged a team-best 20 points per game this season which was best in the league and 18^th nationally.  She also led the team with 191 made field goals and 80 made three-pointers.  She broke the school record for career made three-pointers this season and has 213 for her career.  The previous best was 194 set by Amy Winslow.  During the 2007-08 season, Carpenter had 16 games of scoring 20 points or more and tallied her career-high with a 33-point performance against Seattle University, Feb. 16.  Heading into her final season, she has 1,399 career points and has a shot at breaking the 2,000 point mark.  She needs 601 points in 2008-09 to accomplish that feat.

Along with Carpenter, there were five other athletes from Great Northwest Athletic Conference schools named to the two squads.  Rebecca Kielpinski and Jackie Hollands were first team selections, while Kelsey Hill, Leada Berkey and Sheena Brown also were second team selections.

In addition to this honor, Carpenter earned third team ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, Academic All-Conference honors and most recently named first team all-conference.