Women's Basketball | 3/26/2019 9:32:00 AM

    ATLANTA – Record-setting West Liberty University women's basketball standout Marissa Brown has earned yet another prestigious honor, being selected as a first-team NCAA Division II All-American by the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association (WBCA).
    Considered the most exclusive of the annual All-America teams selected by various groups and organizations, the WBCA All-America Team is chosen by a 10-person national selection committee.
    The committee selects a 10-woman First Team All-America unit and a 30-woman Honorable Mention All-America unit with the announcement coming on the eve of the NCAA Division II Elite Eight tournament, which tips off today in Brown's hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
    "The 10 members of the 2019 WBCA NCAA Division II Coaches' All-America Team are well deserving of this recognition and the WBCA congratulates them for their accomplishments this season," WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew said. "These young women have worked to elevate themselves and their teams to an elite level and through their exceptional talents on the basketball court, they have lifted the women's game."
    This is the second consecutive WBCA All-America honor for Brown, who was an honorable mention selection last winter, and she becomes only the second Lady Hilltopper ever to earn a first-team All-America berth from the WBCA voters. Hillary Southworth was a first-team pick following the 2013 season.
    Honored earlier this week as a first-team D2CCA All-American, the 6-3 post virtually rewrote the Mountain East Conference and West Liberty record books during her stellar senior campaign.
    Ranked among the Top 10 nationally in nine separate categories, Brown led the nation in field goals for the second straight year and was the only NCAA D2 woman ranked in the Top 10 for points, rebounds and blocked shots. She shattered her own school and MEC single-season records with 328 field goals – the most by a Division 2 woman in more than a decade.
    Brown also established new school and MEC single-season standards for points (755) and scoring average (24.4 ppg.) and is the first Lady Hilltopper and MEC woman to average more than 20 ppg. (20.2 ppg.) for her career. The dominant post scored 20 or more points in 22 of her 31 games this year with 9 games of 30-plus points and two games with 40 or more. Her 46-point night against West Virginia State on Jan. 10 was an all-time school and MEC record.
    Brown was one of only two Atlantic Region players named to the WBCA All-America first-team unit, joined by fellow senior Seairra Barrett of California (Pa.). Charleston senior Rasziyah Farrington was an honorable mention choice, along with Edinboro junior Michaela Barnes and Virginia Union sophomore Shareka McNeill.
  Player                                       School                                            Yr                     PPG
MARISSA BROWN                WEST LIBERTY                             SR.                   24.4
Jessica Kelliher                       Lewis (Ill.)                                     Sr.                    24.3
Dana Watts                             American Int. (Mass.)              Sr.                    21.2
Seairra Barrett                       California (Pa.)                            Sr.                    21.2
*Haley Diestelkamp             Drury (Mo.)                                 Jr.                    21.0
Alexy Mollenhauer              Anderson (S.C.)                          Jr.                    19.9
Camille Giardina                    Florida Southern                        Sr.                    19.8
Mikayla Williams                   UC-San Diego                              Jr.                    19.3
Hailey Tucker                          SW Oklahoma State                  Sr.                    18.6
Lexy Hightower                     West Texas A&M                       Jr.                    16.2
     *-National Player of the Year Michaela Barnes, Jr., Edinboro; Rasziyah Farrington, Sr., Charleston; Shareka McNeill, So., Virginia Union