VESTAL, New York — Liz Wood and Sigi Koizar have served as the catalysts of the University of Maine women’s basketball team during its breakthrough season.
On Friday night, they were recognized for their individual efforts.
Wood was named the America East Co-Defensive Player of the Year and with Koizar earned first-team honors, which were bestowed during the conference postseason awards reception held at Binghamton University’s Events Center, the site of the first two rounds of the America East Women’s Basketball Championship, which begins on Saturday.
UMaine’s Richard Barron was selected by his peers as the league Coach of the Year after guiding the Black Bears to a 22-7 record, including a 14-2 America East mark, and a share of the conference regular-season title. UMaine allowed a league-low 53 points per game, which ranks eighth in the nation.
It marked the first time UMaine had a first-team honoree or America East’s top coach since the 2004-2005 season, when Kim Corbitt and Missy Traversi, along with coach Sharon Versyp, earned the awards.
University at Albany junior forward Shereesha Richards was named the AE Player of the Year for the second straight season and shared the defensive honor with Wood. Binghamton guard Jasmine Sina was chosen as the Rookie of the Year, while Albany sophomore guard Imani Tate took home Sixth Player of the Year accolades.
Wood, a 5-foot-10 junior forward from Catlett, Virginia, ranked among the top nine in nine different statistical categories. She was first in steals (2.8 per game) and defensive rebounds (5.9), third in field-goal percentage (.508) and minutes played per game (36.3), and was fifth in rebounds (.7.3), sixth in scoring (14.2) and seventh in assists (3.4).
Wood, the 2013 Co-Rookie of the Year, was a second-team choice last season.
Koizar, a 5-8 guard from Vienna, Austria, had a breakthrough sophomore season. She tied for the UMaine scoring lead and ranked seventh in America East with 14.2 points per game.
Koizar also ranked among the league’s top performers as she was seventh in field-goal percentage (.471) and free-throw percentage (.774), tied for eighth in minutes (33.2) and tied for ninth in steals (1.7).
Wood and Koizar, each of whom boasts a 3.94 grade point average, also earned spots on the AE All-Academic Team along with New Hampshire’s Kaylee Kilpatrick and Stony Brook’s Jessica Ogunnorin and Brittany Snow.
Elizabeth Belanger of New Hampshire and Sabre Proctor Stony Brook also earned first-team all-conference honors.