CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-- Four juniors and a senior have been named to the America East women’s basketball preseason all-conference team as voted on by the league’s nine head coaches. Among the five players honored, University of Hartford’s Erica Beverly (Bridgeport, Conn./Kolbe Cathedral) and University of Vermont’s Courtnay Pilypaitis (Ottawa, Ontario/St. Peter), the reigning Player of the Year, were unanimous selections. Head coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players.
Alongside Beverly and Pilypaitis are UMBC’s Carlee Cassidy (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill), Boston University’s
Jesyka Burks-Wiley (Kansas City, Mo./Lincoln College Prep) and Hartford’s Diana Delva (Stamford, Conn./Westhill). Beverly, Pilypaitis and Cassidy were members of the 2008 All-Conference First Team, while Burks-Wiley and Delva were both second-team all-conference.
Beverly, a 6-0 forward, earned the conference’s Rookie of the Year in 2006, but because of a knee injury just eight games into the 2006-07 season, people around the league wondered how she would bounce back. Beverly rebounded with 8.6 points and 7.3 boards per game last season, including 9.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per America East game. In addition to first-team accolades, the junior also earned a spot on the All-Defensive Team recording 25 blocks and 42 steals in 34 games played. Beverly finished second in the conference in rebounding and third in field goal percentage, shooting at a .510 clip.
Pilypaitis has won major hardware each season she’s been in the conference, receiving the 2007 Rookie of the Year and the 2008 Player of the Year awards. The 6-1 guard was second in America East in scoring last season with 16.8 points per game, including a league-best 20.3 points per conference contest. Overall, Pilypaitis ranked among the league’s top three in five out of nine categories. She also recorded America East’s only 40-point and triple-double performances last year, both coming in conference games.
Cassidy, a 5-9 guard, became UMBC’s first all-conference first-team honoree last year after leading the league in scoring at 17.0 points per outing. The junior drained 67 three-pointers last season for a league-leading 2.39 treys per game. Cassidy also ranked eighth in America East with a .781 free throw percentage. Already one of the most prolific players in UMBC program history through just two years, Cassidy ranks second all-time with a .784 career free throw percentage, fifth with a .326 career three-point field goal percentage and seventh with 98 career three-pointers.
Burks-Wiley, a 6-1 senior forward, returned to form last season after battling injuries as a sophomore. She led the Terriers, the top-scoring team in the conference, in scoring at 13.2 points per game and in rebounding at 5.8 boards per game. Burks-Wiley also averaged 1.3 steals in 24.8 minutes per game. In 24 of 32 games--including a string of 10 straight contests from December 11, 2007 to January 30, 2008--she scored in double figures. Her .805 free throw percentage ranked fourth in America East.
Delva led the conference in shooting a year ago with a .606 field goal percentage and was fifth with 6.8 rebounds per game. The 6-2 junior forward is the top returning scorer for the Hawks, having averaged 9.4 points per game last season. In 2008 conference games, Delva scored 10.2 points per game while averaging 19.2 minutes. She also led the team in blocks with 29, good for 0.85 per game, the sixth best mark in America East last season and third best returning this year.(9.3 ppg).