The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference

League Announces All-PSAC Women's Basketball Teams: (March 11, 2008)

View Entire All-PSAC Teams - .pdf

Dana Weems of West Chester and Lauren Beckley of Shippensburg have been selected by the basketball coaches as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Athletes of the Year. Weems represents the Eastern Division and Beckley the Western Division.

West Chester's Megan Stewart and California's Kayla Smith were chosen as the Eastern and Western Division Rookies of the Year, respectively. Honored by their peers as league Coaches of the Year were Cheyney's Darryl Brown and Clarion's Gie Parsons.

Weems, a junior from Pottstown, has made an immediate impact in her first year with the Golden Rams. A transfer from Harcum Junior College, the versatile guard helped guide the West Chester squad to a 9-3 Eastern Division record, 19-10 overall. Weems' play was a big reason the Golden Rams qualified for the PSAC playoffs for 12th time in the last 13 years, earning the division's No. 2 seed. She led the team in scoring at 12.0 points per game (17th - PSAC) and finished second in rebounding at 7.3 per game (11th - PSAC). Weems also ranked in the league's top 10 in field goal percentage (10th - 50.8 percent) and steals (5th - 2.79 per game). In addition to this accolade, Weems is an All-PSAC East First Team selection.

A sophomore guard from Fairfield (Fairfield HS), Beckley earns her second consecutive league honor after being recognized as the Western Division's Rookie of the Year a season ago. She leads the conference in both scoring and rebounding as she averages a double-double with 22.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per contest. In just her second season, Beckley has put together 28 double-double efforts, including 21 this season. One of her best performances this season came against Lock Haven when Beckley just missed tying the PSAC single-game point record by one point, recording 47 markers and 11 boards in the contest. She currently ranks first in the league in three-point field goal percentage, hitting 43.3 percent of her shots from behind the arc (55-of-127). She also ranks among the league's leaders in free-throw percentage (7th - 82.8; 135-of-163) and field goal percentage (11th - 50.5; 217-of-430).

Last year, Beckley set the Shippensburg and PSAC freshman scoring record (548) and was the first freshman to be named to the All-PSAC West First Team since 2002. After just two seasons, she currently ranks 13th in school history in career points.

Stewart, a freshman who hails from York (York Catholic HS), was a key reason the Golden Rams finished the season with a strong run that helped to propel them into the PSAC playoffs. After finishing with an 8-6 record in their first 14 games, the Golden Rams went 11-4 in their finals games to finish with a 19-10 overall record, 9-3 in the PSAC East and a playoff berth. Stewart averaged 4.93 assists per game during that run, finishing the season with the 8th-best mark in the league at 3.68 assists per game. Her 103 total assists ranked second on the team while her 65 steals ranked third. She led the league in assist to turnover ration at +1.81 while recording 6.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, including nine double-digit scoring efforts.

A native of Elkins, W. Va., Smith led all freshmen in scoring and rebounding as she averaged 15.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per contests. She finished second on the team in scoring and tied for first in rebounding. Her 54.8 field goal percentage (187-of-341) ranks second in the league. The rookie led California in scoring 10 times while posting the team-high for rebounds eight times and has seven double-double efforts thus far this season. Smith owns eight games in which she has scored 20 or more points, highlighted by a 20-point, 20-rebound performance against Edinboro in the season finale.

In just his second year at Cheyney, Coach Brown turned around a squad that finished last season with an 0-12 mark against Eastern Division opponents and was just 4-22 overall. This year, the Wolves finished with a 7-5 divisional record, 11-16 overall. Brown's squad also qualified for the PSAC playoffs for the first time since 1989-90, securing the No. 3 seed in the process. The Wolves' 11 wins also are the most since the 1989-90 season when Cheyney finished with a 19-9 record.

Parsons earns her fourth Coach of the Year Award after guiding her Golden Eagles squad to a 18-9 overall record, 8-4 in the PSAC West. Clarion finished third in the division and qualified for the PSAC playoffs after being picked to finish fifth in the coaches' preseason poll. The squad swept regional and divisional foe Shippensburg while splitting a pair of regular season contests with California. The 19th-year head coach is the winningest coach in Clarion history with a record of 288-238 and has led the Golden Eagles to six NCAA Division II playoff berths, including two Elite Eight trips, three PSAC titles, five Western Division titles and nine PSAC playoff berths. Parsons' other accolades came in 2005, 1992 and 1991.