INDIANAPOLIS — Drury senior Annie Armstrong and juniors Alice Heinzler and Hannah Dressler picked up All-Great Lakes Valley Conference women's basketball honors as the league announced its award recipients Wednesday morning.
Armstrong, leading scorer for the Lady Panthers at 15.2 points per game, was a unanimous choice and was joined on the ALL-GLVC First Team by her backcourt mate Heinzler (11.2 ppg), while Dressler (a team-high 7.4 rebounds per contest) was named to the league's Third Team in a vote of GLVC coaches. Armstrong was a repeat First Team choice, while Heinzler and Dressler were honored for the first time in their DU careers.
Drury (23-3 will open play as the No. 2 seed in the GLVC Championship post-season tourney quarterfinals on Thursday when the Lady Panthers take on 7-seed Rockhurst (15-12) at 2:30 p.m. at Family Arena in St. Charles. Coach Molly Miller's Lady Panthers are the defending league champions and will take a 13-game winning streak into the tourney.
Lewis University senior forward Mariyah Brawner-Henley has been named the 2015-16 Great Lakes Valley Conference women's basketball Player of the Year. Rockhurst University sophomore guard Jillian Myers was selected as Defensive Player of the Year, Lewis forward Jessica Kelliher garnered Freshman of the Year honors, while Flyers' first-year leader Kristen Gillespie was voted by her peers as the Chuck Mallander Coach of the Year.
Brawner-Henley led the Flyers in 10 different statistical categories and was tops in the GLVC for total rebounds (322), rebound average (11.5) and defensive rebounds (8.7) while second in scoring average (20.4). She eclipsed the 30-point plateau three times this season, including with a 32-point effort at Maryville on January 14. She won GLVC Player of the Week an unprecedented four times, first on December 7, again on Jan. 4 and then back-to-back Feb. 8 and 15. The Skokie, Illinois, native broke a 30-year-old program rebound record on Dec. 30 against non-conference foe Cumberland. Moreover, on Feb. 11 – based on current Conference records – she became the league's all-time rebounder, following a 15-rebound effort against Quincy. She now is up to 1,238 career boards, which leads all active players nationally at the NCAA Division II level.
The forward also owns DII active career-leader bests in double-doubles (69) and field goals made (789), while holding top-5 spots in points (3rd, 1,927) and field-goal attempts (4th, 1,507). In addition to her rebound record, Brawner-Henley also reached and exceeded the 1,500-point threshold in early December. The senior is also part of a 2016 graduating class that became only the fifth Conference team to surpass the 100-win mark in a four-year period. In fact, the Flyer seniors have now won more games than any other GLVC team in league history, sitting with a 105-16 mark ahead of postseason action. Brawner-Henley was also named Player of the Year for the 2013-14 season and is now the third-straight major award winner for Lewis, as classmate Jamie Johnson was voted last year's top player. The only other time a school has earned three-straight Player of the Year honors was when former league member Northern Kentucky's Michelle Cottrell was the honoree in 1999-00, 2000-01 and 2001-02. Overall, Brawner-Henley is the sixth Flyer to earn the GLVC's top honor.
Lewis earns another major winner in the form of Jessica Kelliher, who was voted the GLVC's top newcomer. She is the fourth Flyer to earn the accolade but the first since Darcee Schmidt was chosen during the 2003-04 season. Kelliher was the best league shooter during the regular season, boasting a 63.4% average, which also happens to be the second-best mark among all of Division II. She finished the regular season fourth in the league in scoring (18.5), 11 times led the Flyers in points and was twice named GLVC Player of the Week Dec. 14, 2015 and Jan. 25, 2016.
This is the first year the league has awarded a Defensive Player of the Year laurel, and Rockhurst's Jillian Myers becomes the inaugural honoree. She led the league with 94 steals and also pick-pocketed a GLVC-best 3.48 per game. Both of those marks rank fifth nationally in Division II. In addition to her skills in the backcourt, the sophomore's mark of 4.26 assists was good for sixth in the loop, while she recorded a 1.95 assist/turnover ratio to rank second. This is just the second time a Hawk has earned major postseason award distinction as junior teammate and First Team All-GLVC honoree Mary Dineen was chosen the 2013-14 Freshman of the Year.
Lewis' Gillespie had big shoes to fill after taking over for the 2015 GLVC and National Coach of the Year Lisa Carlsen, who vacated the role to pursue duties at the Division I level, and the new skipper did not miss a beat. Up to the challenge, Gillespie guided her squad to a 27-1 overall record and an unblemished 18-0 mark in league play, including a national ranking as high as No. 2 (currently No. 4), the outright GLVC East Division title, as well as the top seed in this week's GLVC Basketball Championship Tournament. She is the fourth Lewis mentor selected and earns the sixth top coaching accolade for a Flyers' head coach.
Drury's Armstrong and Bellarmine's Sarah Galvin joined Brawner-Henley as the lone unanimous first-team picks. Armstrong averaged 15.2 points and led the league in free-throw percentage at 93.3% (3rd nationally), having missed just six attempts at the line all season. Galvin tallied a 17.6 scoring clip and was fourth in the loop with 7.8 rebounds in 24 Conference games.
