Western Kentucky’s Dee Givens earned First Team All-Conference USA and All-Defensive Team honors, Raneem Elgedawy captured a niche at the Second Team, and Meral Abdelgawad changed into named to the All-Freshman Team, the conference workplace introduced Monday. With Givens and Elgedawy incomes all-conference honors, the Lady Toppers have now had more than one all-convention recipients in every in their five seasons as a league member. Both all-convention honors are the primary of Givens’ and Legendary’s careers, although the two each won an individual award following the 2017-18 campaign as Givens was named Sixth Player of the Year and Elgedawy took domestic Freshman of the Year accolades. Abdelgawad becomes the third Lady Topper to be named to the All-Freshman Team, becoming a member of former C-USA Player of the Year Tashia Brown and Elgedawy, who changed into a 2018 choice. WKU is one in every of 4 applications this season, alongside Rice, UAB and Middle Tennessee, to have a couple of all-convention options. Rice and UAB every had three gamers selected, at the same time as Middle
Tennessee and the Lady Toppers every had a couple. Givens grew to become in a robust campaign in her first season as a number one starter, averaging 18 points per game to steer the Lady Toppers and rank third among C-USA players. The redshirt junior had 14 video games with at the least 20 points, inclusive of a profession-quality 31-point outburst at FIU on Jan. 17. Givens additionally finished the ordinary season as the second one-exceptional 3-point shooter in C-USA at a 43.2 percent clip (seventy three-of-169), together with her seventy-three makes from beyond the arc rating fourth for an unmarried season in application records; for her profession, Givens has tired 157 3-hints, already the 9th-most in records via a Lady Topper with a full season nonetheless closing. Defensively, Givens shined with 91 overall steals, the second-first-rate ever by a Lady Topper and 30 greater than every other C-USA player this season. The Lexington native had five or more steals in six games this season, such as a couple of games with eight steals in opposition to Marshall (Jan. 12) and at North Texas (March 2). Givens is one of seven Division I gamers within the country with a couple of eight-thieve video games this season and is the first Lady Topper in faculty history to have such video games within the same campaign. The reigning C-USA Sixth Player of the Year, Givens’ First Team honor is the 12th for WKU when you consider that Greg Collins joined the personnel previous to the 2012-thirteen season, and she is the 6th unique Lady Topper to earn First Team All-Conference honors over that stretch. Ayr removed from being named the C-USA Freshman of the Year, Elgedawy loved a strong sophomore season while enhancing all of her numbers sincerely. Her scoring jumped greater than seven factors to 16 factors consistent with the sport, the sixth-best amongst all C-USA gamers, and her 7.Four rebounds in line with sport led all Lady Toppers and ranked 7th in the convention. The Alexandria, Egypt, local’s strengths were on complete show in the course of WKU’s Florida swing in January, while she captured C-USA Player of the Week honors and became named to the NCAA Weekly Starting Five after 28 factors at FIU and a 25-factor, sixteen-rebound sport at Florida Atlantic. After having no 20-factor video games as a freshman, Elgedawy exploded for six such games this season, inclusive of her 27-point recreation at UTEP on Feb. Three. In that recreation, she tallied 21 second-half points and scored the move-beforehand basket with 10 seconds last as WKU engineered a 12-point comeback victory. Elgedawy is the first international player to earn all-conference honors in Lady Topper history and is currently on pace to method 1,000 factors and 1,000 rebounds for her career. Abdelgawad became the various pinnacle beginners in C-USA this season, averaging eight. Nine points in line with the game with 12 double-digit outings, inclusive of 20-point games in opposition to Union (Tenn.) (26) and Old Dominion (22). The Cairo, Egypt, local captured C-USA Freshman of the Week honors three times, simply one shy of this system document set by way of Elgedawy last season, and nearly led the Lady Toppers to an upset at Oklahoma in just her second recreation, finishing with 15 factors, nine rebounds, and five assists. The freshman finished the regular season taking pictures 50. Three percentage (ninety two-of-183) from the ground, the top qualifying wide variety via a shield in C-USA this season, and shot 50 percent or higher in 15 games while flashing her efficiency. WKU will start play inside the C-USA Tournament in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday at eleven:30 a.M. The Lady Toppers may have the No. Four seed within the tournament, dealing with off towards Old Dominion or Florida Atlantic of their commencing sport before a potential rematch with pinnacle-seeded Rice, which went undefeated in C-USA play, in Friday’s semifinals.
