Junior forward Michelle Nwokedi was named the Ivy League Player of the Year on Thursday. Three other Quakers brought home some hardware for Penn women's basketball.
After a dominant Ivy League campaign, nobody should be surprised that Penn women's basketball scored big when Ivy League year-end awards were announced.
Junior forward Michelle Nwokedi (Ivy League Player of the Year and First Team All-Ivy), senior center Sydney Stipanovich and junior guard Anna Ross (Second Team All-Ivy) and coach Mike McLaughlin (Ivy League Coach of the Year) were big winners when the awards were handed out on Thursday, just as they have been all season with the 13-1 Quakers, who enter this weekend's Ivy League Tournament as the top seed.
Nwokedi was Penn's leading scorer and rebounder with 14.7 points per game with 9.3 rebounds, good for second and fifth in the league, respectively. She scored her 1,000th career point late in the season, and as the league's best player, her unanimous selection to the league's First Team is well-deserved.
Stipanovich, who won Player of the Year last season, averaged 11 points and 8.5 rebounds in her final season, breaking the all-time Ivy League blocks record in the process. "Stip" averaged 1.9 blocks per game, good for third in the league.
Ross averaged nine points and 4.1 assists, finishing as the league's second-most prolific passer. While the post duo of Stipanovich and Nwokedi generated most of the hype, Ross led a guard unit that played a huge role for the Red and Blue.
McLaughlin, who also was named the best coach last season, became the program's all-time wins leader this year while leading the team to its third league title in four years.
Of course, that league title no longer guarantees the Quakers a trip to the NCAA Tournament. To get to the Big Dance, Penn will need two more wins this weekend at the Palestra.
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