Gamecock Women Take Home Major Awards

The South Carolina Gamecocks' women's basketball team brought home the SEC Championship once again this season, and now add three more pieces of hardware to the trophy case.

First off, the SEC announced that Tiffany Mitchell earned Player of the Year honors.  Mitchell led the Gamecocks with 14.8 points per game on 52% shooting from the field, to go with 3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.  At 29.2 minutes per game, she was a mainstay on the floor for the Gamecocks.

For the second straight season, a Gamecock took home the conference's Freshman of the Year award.  A'ja Wilson deservedly brought the honors to Columbia thanks to her 13.7 points per game (second on the team to Mitchell) that also included seven rebounds per outing.  While she regularly came off the bench, her 20.7 minutes per game still rated fifth on the team, making her an integral part of Carolina's unit.

Head coach Dawn Staley shared Coach of the Year honors with Mississippi State's Vic Schaefer.  The Bulldogs were an impressive 11-5 in the SEC this season and Schaefer did a nice job in Starkville, but consider us partial to the coach that went 17-1 in the conference, which included a 19-point smashing of the Bulldogs from the Magnolia State.

Lastly, but also impressively, Aleighsa Welch was awarded both a spot on the First Team All-SEC roster, as well as taking home the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.

A great season for the Gamecocks on the court turned out to be a great one for bringing home trophies.  Dawn Staley and her troops now have another chance to bring home another major piece of hardware this weekend as they take on the rest of the conference in the SEC Tournament in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  First up for the women is the winner of Arkansas-Ole Miss on Thursday.