HENDERSON, Nev. - The Big West revealed its 2022-23 women’s basketball all-conference team, major awards and specialty awards Monday on the eve of tipoff for the Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands.
Regular-season runner-up Long Beach State picked up five of the seven individual honors, with redshirt senior guard Tori Harris both The Big West Player of the Year and the first-ever Big West Newcomer of the Year on the women’s side. Sixth-year Beach leader Jeff Cammon is The Big West Coach of the Year for the first time. UC Davis’ Megan Norris was chosen as The Big West Freshman of the Year.
Like teammate Harris, LBSU’s Kristyna Jeskeova is a double recipient as The Big West Best Defensive Player and Best Hustle Player. Nevaeh Parkinson of regular-season champion UC Irvine is The Big West Best Sixth Player. The league’s 11 head coaches voted for all awards.
A sixth-year collegian, Harris spent two years at James Madison and three more at St. Bonaventure prior to arriving on the LBSU campus. The product of Dix Hills, N.Y., has appeared in all 30 games, with 26 starts, and is averaging team bests of 13.6 points (sixth in league) and 31.7 minutes (seventh) per game to go along with 4.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals per outing. Harris has hit a team-best 40 three-pointers, and shoots 84.2 percent from the free throw line (fifth in The Big West). A double-figure scorer in all but five contests, Harris poured in a career-high 32 points in a home win over UC San Diego on Jan. 21. It is the highest single-game total in the conference for 2022-23, as one of just four 30-point efforts. Harris added a double-double of 17 points and a career-best 14 boards in another home victory over UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 23. Harris is LBSU’s first Big West Player of the Year since Crystal McCutcheon in 2005-06, and sixth overall.
Cammon has guided Long Beach State to its first 20-win campaign since 2016-17, and its most Big West victories since the Beach went a perfect 18-0 back in 1988-89. LBSU is 22-8 overall heading into the postseason and finished 17-3 in league play. The 15-game win streak that was just snapped on Saturday night has been the longest in The Big West this season, the longest under Cammon, and the Beach’s best since another 15-gamer early in 2014-15. It included a remarkable rally from a 22-point deficit at home against fifth-place UC Santa Barbara, for a 66-63 triumph on Feb. 23. The Beach rank 10th nationally in steals per game (11.5) and turnover margin (6.1), 21st in turnovers forced per game (20.1), and 26th in scoring defense (56.8). Cammon is LBSU’s first Big West Coach of the Year since Mary Hegarty in 2005-06, and third in all.
Norris, a redshirt freshman, has appeared in all 29 games, drawing 22 starts, and averages 7.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists per outing with a .485 shooting percentage. The 6-foot-3 center’s college career began loudly in the season opener back on Nov. 7 against Bethel College of Kansas, as the Menlo Park native went for a 20-point, 11-board double-double in just 21 minutes. Norris added one more double-double on Jan. 19 at UC Riverside with 14 points and a season-high 13 rebounds, and has scored in double digits seven times.
The All-Big West First Team consists of Harris, the UC Santa Barbara senior tandem of Ila Lane and Alexis Tucker, true sophomore guards Hunter Hernandez of UC Irvine and Lily Wahinekapu of Hawai’i, and UC Davis junior guard Evanne Turner, the league’s leading scorer at 15.1 points per game. Lane, the 2019-20 Big West Freshman of the Year, paces the conference at 8.3 rebounds per game, and is the lone two-timer, having made the first team in 2019-20 and the second in 2021-22.
The Anteaters’ top scorer this season at 12.0 points per game, Hernandez was a two-time Big West Player of the Week before sustaining a season-ending injury on Feb. 15. Wahinekapu was The Big West Freshman of the Year a season ago at Cal State Fullerton, picking up an honorable mention alongside Turner before returning home to O’ahu. Tucker is fifth in the conference in scoring (13.7) and ninth in rebounding (5.9).
Parkinson, UCI’s first Best Sixth Player since Kelly Cochran in 2008-09 and just its second-ever recipient of the award that began in 2000-01, is a 6-foot-3 junior forward/center. The product of Dallas, Texas, has appeared in all 29 games, coming off the bench in all but one, and is averaging 7.3 points and a team-best 5.7 rebounds (11th in The Big West) per game while shooting 52.4 percent from the field as a first-year ‘Eater after spending the past two seasons at New Mexico.
Jeskeova had started each of the first 23 games and was providing 6.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game when the fourth-year junior guard suffered a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 9 at UC Santa Barbara. Despite missing the last seven contests, the native of the Czech Republic still paces Long Beach State in total boards (153), steals (63-tied) and blocks (20-tied). A .479 shooter from the floor, Jeskeova’s steal (2.7) and rebounding averages rank first and sixth in The Big West, respectively. LBSU has had the last two Defensive Players of the Year, with Maddi Utti the 2021-22 recipient.
The Cal State Fullerton backcourt duo of Una Jovanovic and Fujika Nimmo are on the All-Big West Second Team with veterans Tess Amundsen of CSUN, fellow graduate student Sydney Brown of UC San Diego, and sixth-year LBSU senior Ma’Qhi Berry. Brown is a three-time second-teamer, with Amundsen a repeat selection from 2021-22. Fifteen more garnered All-Big West honorable mentions to make 26 student-athletes recognized Monday, with all 11 league members represented.
Norris is joined on The Big West All-Freshman Team by Garrisen Freeman of CSU Bakersfield, UC Santa Barbara’s Jessica Grant, Demonnie Lagway of Cal State Fullerton, UC San Diego’s Junae Mahan, and Imani Perez of Hawai’i.
On The Big West All-Defensive Team alongside Berry and Jeskeova are UC Santa Barbara’s Callie Cooper, CSUN grad student Jordyn Jackson, and UC Irvine newcomer Diaba Konate, a native of Paris, France.
The Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, tips off at noon on Tuesday, March 7, from The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. All nine games will air on ESPN+, with Saturday’s final slated for a 3 p.m. PT start.
| 2022-23 Big West Women's Basketball All-Conference Team |
| Player of the Year: |
Tori Harris, Long Beach State |
| Freshman of the Year: |
Megan Norris, UC Davis |
| Newcomer of the Year: |
Tori Harris, Long Beach State |
| Coach of the Year: |
Jeff Cammon, Long Beach State |
| Specialty Awards |
| Best Sixth Player: |
Nevaeh Parkinson, UC Irvine |
| Best Defensive Player: |
Kristyna Jeskeova, Long Beach State |
| Best Hustle Player: |
Kristyna Jeskeova, Long Beach State |
| All-Big West First Team
|
| Student-Athlete |
Year |
Position |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Tori Harris |
R-Sr. |
G |
Long Beach State |
Dix Hills, N.Y. |
| Hunter Hernandez |
So. |
G |
UC Irvine |
San Jose, Calif. |
| Ila Lane |
Sr. |
F/C |
UC Santa Barbara |
Moraga, Calif. |
| Alexis Tucker |
Sr. |
G |
UC Santa Barbara |
Hawthorne, Calif. |
| Evanne Turner |
Jr. |
G |
UC Davis |
Fontana, Calif. |
| Lily Wahinekapu |
So. |
G |
Hawai’i |
Kane’ohe, O’ahu |
| All-Big West Second Team
|
| Student-Athlete |
Year |
Position |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Tess Amundsen |
Gr. |
F |
CSUN |
Fresno, Calif. |
| Ma'Qhi Berry |
R-Sr. |
G |
Long Beach State |
Irving, Texas |
| Sydney Brown |
Gr. |
G/F |
UC San Diego |
Rexford, N.Y. |
| Una Jovanovic |
So. |
G |
Cal State Fullerton |
Santa Clara, Calif. |
| Fujika Nimmo |
Sr. |
G |
Cal State Fullerton |
Davenport, Fla. |
| Honorable Mention |
| Malia Bambrick (Long Beach State); Taylor Caldwell (CSU Bakersfield); Izzy Forsyth (UC San Diego); Kianna Hamilton-Fisher (Long Beach State); Jordyn Jackson (CSUN); Kristyna Jeskeova (Long Beach State); Déja Lee (UC Irvine); Nevaeh Parkinson (UC Irvine); Daejah Phillips (Hawai’i); Tova Sabel (UC Davis); Kallin Spiller (Hawai’i); Nikki Tom (UC Irvine); Oumou Toure (Cal Poly); Hennie van Schaik (CSU Bakersfield); Jordan Webster (UC Riverside) |
| Big West All-Freshman Team
|
| Student-Athlete |
Position |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Garrisen Freeman |
G |
CSU Bakersfield |
Las Vegas, Nev. |
| Jessica Grant |
G |
UC Santa Barbara |
San Marcos, Calif. |
| Demonnie Lagway |
G |
Cal State Fullerton |
Los Angeles, Calif. |
| Junae Mahan |
G |
UC San Diego |
Stockton, Calif. |
| Megan Norris |
C |
UC Davis |
Menlo Park, Calif. |
| Imani Perez |
F |
Hawai’i |
Denver, Colo. |
| Big West All-Defensive Team
|
| Student-Athlete |
Year |
Position |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Ma’Qhi Berry |
R-Sr. |
G |
Long Beach State |
Irving, Texas |
| Callie Cooper |
So. |
G |
UC Santa Barbara |
Richardson, Texas |
| Jordyn Jackson |
Gr. |
G |
CSUN |
Moreno Valley, Calif. |
| Kristyna Jeskeova |
Jr. |
G |
Long Beach State |
Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic |
| Diaba Konate |
Jr. |
G |
UC Irvine |
Paris, France |