Mountain West Announces 2014-15 Women's Basketball All-Conference Team

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The 11 MW women’s basketball coaches chose Colorado State senior Gritt Ryder and Fresno State senior Alex Sheedy as the Mountain West Women’s Basketball Co-Players of the Year for 2014-15 as the All-Conference team and individual award winners were announced today. New Mexico head coach Yvonne Sanchez earned her first MW Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Lobos to a second-place finish in the league standings. Nevada senior Mimi Mungedi was awarded Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second consecutive season, while Fresno State senior Raven Fox was chosen as the Sixth Player of the Year. Utah State’s Funda Nakkasoglu was recognized as the Freshman of the Year and Wyoming junior Jordan Kelley was named Newcomer of the Year.

Nine seniors, one junior and one sophomore make up this year’s All-MW team. Ryder was one of seven repeat honorees, along with Wyoming senior Kayla Woodward. Woodward makes her fourth appearance on the league’s postseason teams, the 11th player to earn the recognition every year of their Mountain West career.

Joining Ryder, Sheedy, Mungedi and Woodward on the team are Ellen Nystrom (So., Colorado State) and Marquelle Dent (Jr. Wyoming), as well as Boise State senior Deanna Weaver, New Mexico senior Antiesha Brown, San José state senior Ta’Rea Cunnigan, and the UNLV senior duo of Alana Cesarz and Danielle Miller.

Three players received honorable mention – Nakkasoglu, Air Force senior Jimi Blagowsky and San Diego State junior Erimma Amarikwa.

Mungedi, Nystrom, Dent, Brown, Miller and Fox were also named to the MW All-Defensive Team. Nakkasoglu was joined on the All-Freshman Team by Fresno State’s Bego Faz Davalos, New Mexico’s Cherise Beynon, San Diego State’s McKynzie Fort and UNLV’s Nikki Wheatley.

Sanchez guided the Lobos to a second-place finish in the standings with a 14-4 Conference record. UNM finished the regular season 18-11 overall and are the No. 2 seed in the 2015 Mountain West Women’s Basketball Championship, March 9-11 and 13, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Profiles of 2014-15 MW Individual Award honorees

Gritt Ryder (Colorado State) – Co-Player of the Year
Ryder led the Rams to their second consecutive MW regular season title. The senior guard was one of three CSU players to average 10.0 or more points in Conference play at 10.3 in 17 games. She led the league in assist/turnover ratio at 2.3 and was third in MW action with 4.5 assists per game and in free throw percentage (83.3 percent). A native of Denmark, Ryder averaged 33.2 minutes per game.

Alex Sheedy (Fresno State) – Co-Player of the Year
Sheedy ranked fifth in scoring and 10th in rebounding and steals in Mountain West action with 15.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. The senior forward from Australia shot 40.7 percent from the field, ranking eighth and was fourth from the charity stripe at 81.9 percent. Sheedy tied for third in Conference play with five double-doubles.

Mimi Mungedi (Nevada) – Defensive Player of the Year
Mungedi earned the Defensive Player of the Year award for the second year in a row, the third player in league history to win the honor multiple times (Hanna Zavecz, Wyoming – 2005-06, 2007-08; Jené Morris, San Diego State – 2008-09, 2009-10). She led the league in MW play with 9.7 rebounds and 3.4 offensive rebounds per game and field goal percentage at 54.5 percent. The 6-foot-8 senior from Gabon averaged 11.7 points, 6.2 defensive rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots in Conference play. Mungedi led the league with eight double-doubles and set an MW single-game rebounding record with 29 boards against San José State on February 7. She had nine MW games with 10 or more rebounds.

Jordan Kelley (Wyoming) – Newcomer of the Year
Kelley finished league play ranked first in free throw percentage at 87.5 and second in rebounding with 8.7 board per game and assist/turnover ratio at 1.8. The transfer from Washington State also averaged 9.3 points, 3.1 assists and 34.1 minutes per game. Kelley, a junior guard, recorded seven games with 10 or more rebounds with a season-high 15 against San Diego State on February 11. One of her five double-doubles was 15 points and 10 assists versus San José State on January 3.

Funda Nakkasoglu (Utah State) – Freshman of the Year
Nakkasoglu finished Conference play as the league’s top scorer with 18.9 points per game and was second in assists (5.1) and minutes played (35.9) per contest. The rookie guard from Australia shot 41.0 from the field and 81.3 from the free throw line, ranking in the top 10 in both categories. She scored 20 or more points in eight games with a Conference season-high of 28 at New Mexico on January 10.

Raven Fox (Fresno State) – Sixth Player of the Year
Fox came off the bench in 13 of 18 MW games for the Bulldogs, while averaging 24.7 minutes per game. The senior guard from Antioch, California averaged 7.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.4 steals and 2.6 assists in the supporting role. She shot 43.5 percent from the floor and had a season-high 19 points at Nevada on January 24.

Yvonne Sanchez (New Mexico) – Coach of the Year
After starting Conference play 0-2 with losses on the road at Fresno State and Colorado State, Sanchez guided the Lobos to a 14-2 mark over the final 16 regular-season games, including an eight-game win streak, as the Lobos finished 14-4 in the league. UNM finished 18-11 overall after starting the season 1-7.