March 10, 2003

Columbia College Earns Automatic Bid to NAIA National Tournament

Columbia, Mo. – The Columbia College women's basketball team secured its spot in the NAIA Division I Women’s National Tournament bracket, defeating Hannibal-LaGrange College in the championship game of the American Midwest Conference postseason tournament tonight by a score of 81-74. The Lady Cougars will compete in the NAIA's 32-team national tournament as the AMC’s automatic qualifier on March 19-25 at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn.

In addition, in a vote by league coaches, Delena White, a 5-10 forward for the Hannibal-LaGrange College Trojans, is the 2002-03 AMC Most Valuable Player. White becomes a two-time recipient of the award. The Shelbyville, Ind. native was honored as the MVP as a sophomore in 2000-01.

White led the Trojans to a second place finish in the AMC regular season standings, totaled 15.6 points per outing. She shot 46 percent from the field, connecting on 139 of her 303 shot attempts. In addition, White averaged eight rebounds and 3.6 assists per game for the Trojans and shot 83 percent from the freethrow line.

The AMC Freshman of the Year is Myranda Evans from Williams Baptist (Ark.) College. In her rookie campaign, the 6-2 forward from Hardy, Ark. averaged 11.5 points and 7.4 rebounds a game. She shot 42 percent from the field and blocked 50 shots, an average of 2.1 per game, during the regular season.

The AMC Newcomer of the Year honor is bestowed upon the top transfer student in the AMC. Sara Heisserer, a sophomore from Williams Baptist, is the 2002-03 recipient of this honor. The Oran, Mo. native shot 54 percent from the field and averaged 16.5 points and 7.3 rebounds to lead the Lady Eagles.

The AMC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season is Mike Davis from Columbia College. In his second season in the AMC, Davis led the Lady Cougars to a 10-1 regular season league mark and an overall mark of 23-8.

A complete list of the 10-member AMC All-Conference team, the honorable mention squad and the academic all-conference team, is included on the following pages. Members of the academic all-conference team have earned at least a cumulative 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.