Four programs picked up at least one individual honor, with regular-season runners-up UC Irvine claiming the Player of the Year in Deja Lee along with Newcomer of the Year Moulayna Johnson Sidi Baba and Best Defensive Player UC Irvine.
Lee led the Anteaters to a 21-8 overall record and a 16-4 mark in league play by posting team-best averages of 13.8 points and 2.6 steals per game to go along with 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists on .429 shooting. The junior from Surrey, British Columbia, recorded six 20-point games on the year, increasing last season’s production by more than five points a game. Lee is the first Big West Women’s Basketball Player of the Year in UC Irvine program history.
Playing a first year in an UCI uniform, graduate transfer Johnson Sidi Baba is averaging 11.4 points and team high 6.7 rebounds a night to claim Big West Newcomer of the Year. Johnson Sidi Baba has scored in double figures in 16 contests, including seven consecutive. The guard from Stockholm, Sweden played four seasons at Miami, including an injury-shortened 2022-23, before joining the UCI squad. Johnson Sidi Baba was also named to the All-Big West second team.
Freshman of the Year honors go to UC San Diego’s Sumayah Sugapong, after a first year with the Tritons where the local product averaged a team-best 14.0 points and 2.1 steals a game. Sugapong posted 23 double-digit scoring efforts on the season to pace the team, land on the All-Freshman Team and claim All-Big West honorable mentioned status. Sugapong is the second UC San Diego player to receive an individual award (Tyla Turner, 2020-21 Best Hustle Player).
At the helm of the UH squad, Laura Beeman earned a third career Coach of the Year award, also earning distinction after the 2021-22 season where the ‘Bows were both regular-season and Championship title holders and in the 2014-15 season. Beeman is in a 12th year with the program, and Hawai’i has compiled a 20-9 record, going 17-3 in league play to earn the No. 1 seed in the bracket and regular-season crown.
In the specialty categories, Hawai’i team leader and Las Vegas native Daejah Phillips picked up a second career Big West Best Sixth Player award, also earning acclaim after the 2020-21 season. Phillips posts averages of 11.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2,1 assists and a team-high 1.6 steals a night for the regular season champion Rainbow Wahine. The fourth-year junior surpassed 1,000 career points in a win over UC Santa Barbara Feb. 17. Phillips also earned the nod on the All-Big West First Team.
UCI’s Diaba Konate took home the award for Big West Best Defensive Player. Konate is the first Anteater to earn the award since back-to-back nods for Angie Ned in 2005-06 and 06-07. Konate averages 2.1 steals per game and has compiled an impressive 277 steals in five years on the court, two with UCI and three at Idaho State.
Matehya Bryant is the first UC Riverside individual honoree since the 2015-16 season, and is the third Highlander to earn Big West Best Hustle Player. Bryant, a redshirt senior from Sammamish, Wash., helped UCR to a tie for third in The Big West standings, vastly outperforming the preseason predictions of a 10th place finish. Bryant heads into the postseason averaging 12.0 points, a team-high 8.2 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.9 assists per game. Bryant was named to the All-Big West second team, with Jordan Webster representing UCR on the first team. Webster leads the league in scoring average, with 16.9 points per game.
Joining Lee, Phillips and Webster on the first team are Cal Poly’s Natalia Ackerman, Evanne Turner of UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara’s Alexis Whitfield.
Ackerman has topped the league in blocks per game all season with a 2.10 average to rate 25th in the country. The senior from Watsonville, Calif., is also effective from the floor, leading The Big West in shooting percentage at .591 (137-for-232). Ackerman has recorded a league-best 11 double-doubles on the season to help the Mustangs to a tie for third in the conference standings and No. 4 seed in the Championship.
The league’s leading rebounder is Whitfield, who pulls down 9.57 boards per game to go along with 14.6 points per game for UC Santa Barbara, which rates second on the scoring lists. Whitfield has posted nine double-doubles and nine contests with 20 or more points this year. The West Hills, Calif., product averages 7.7 defensive rebounds per game to land in 12th in NCAA Division I.
Fifth-year guard UC Davis’ Evanne Turner is the lone repeat first-team honoree on the All-Big West listings. Turner head to Henderson averaging 14.52 points including 2.49 three-pointers per game. The guard from Fontana, Calif., has compiled 1,593 career points as an Aggie with a program record 301 triples.
The 2023-24 awards have all 11 teams represented, as well as no fewer than six states and six countries.
The 2024 Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship tips off tomorrow, Wednesday March 13 at Noon from The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. For more information on the championship, please visit
bigwest.org/2024.