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Carino: Simmons, Bozzella earn All-Met honors

Ka-Deidre Simmons Named Met POY, Bozzella COYDaisha Simmons is 1st-Team All-Met, Tabatha Richardson-Smith named 2nd-Team.

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Ka-Deidre Simmons is the third player in program history to earn MBWA Player of the Year honors.

April 20, 2015

NEW YORK - On the heels of one of the most successful campaigns in program history, the Seton Hall University women's basketball team raked in a plethora of additional accolades including a pair of major honors from the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), Monday it was announced by the organization.

Star point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.), who earlier this month was named an Associated Press and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Honorable Mention All-American, has been named the MBWA Division I Women's Player of the Year. Reigning BIG EAST Women's Basketball Coach of the Year Anthony Bozzella, who guided the Pirates to a program record 28 wins and their first NCAA Tournament berth in two decades, is the MBWA Maggie Dixon Division I Women's Coach of the Year.

WBCA Honorable Mention All-American Daisha Simmons (Jersey City, N.J.) was also named First-Team All-Metropolitan while junior Tabatha Richardson-Smith (Bay City, Texas) received Second-Team All-Metropolitan honors for a second-straight season.

All four Pirates will be formally recognized at the 82nd Annual Haggerty Awards Dinner, presented by the MBWA, held Wednesday, April 22, at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, N.Y.

Simmons is the third student-athlete in Seton Hall history to earn MBWA Women's Player of the Year honors (Jodie Brooks, Dana Wynne), and she is the first to do so since Wynne's 1996-97 campaign. Bozzella is the first SHU women's basketball coach to collect MBWA Coach of the Year accolades since Phyllis Mangina in 1994 and 1995.

Ka-Deidre Simmons and Richardson-Smith are the first players from Seton Hall to receive All-Met recognition in consecutive seasons since Noteisha Womack earned Second-Team and then First-Team status in 2008-09.

Sure to go down as one of the greatest few players to ever compete at Seton Hall, Ka-Deidre Simmons wrapped up an impressive final campaign at Seton Hall which saw her finish second in program history in scoring (1,717), first in assists (562) and second in steals (257).

Simmons scored in double figures in 31-of-34 games played, and set an SHU single-season record with 194 assists, breaking the old mark of 174 that she set just last season; she finished the year ranked No. 22 in the nation, averaging 5.7 assists per game.

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Bozzella has wasted no time in reshaping the Pirates into one of the premier programs in the BIG EAST Conference and the New York metro area, posting a 48-20 (.706) record over his first two seasons at The Hall. Seton Hall went 15-3 in BIG EAST play, capturing its first-ever conference regular season crown and the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament.

Under Bozzella, Seton Hall has executed one of the highest scoring offenses in the nation, averaging 75.6 ppg, which ranked 22nd in the nation, and easily surpassed the old program record for single-season scoring of 73.2 ppg. Seton Hall has now posted back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1994-95 and consecutive postseason berths for the first time since 2003-04.

Daisha Simmons, who was also a First-Team All-BIG EAST selection in addition to being named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, established herself as a shutdown defender and versatile scorer during her graduate season at Seton Hall. She ranked sixth in the BIG EAST in scoring with 16.7 ppg, and was third in steals (2.4) and sixth in assists (4.0).

Her 81 steals last year rank third for a single season in SHU history, and she tallied a career-best seven on a pair of occasions. Offensively, Simmons scored in double figures in 31-of-34 games with a pair of 30-plus point performances. Her season-high of 32 points came in an overtime win at Georgetown.

Richardson-Smith did a little bit of everything for Seton Hall. After entering the season with the reputation as an explosive scorer, she evolved into one of the BIG EAST's top rebounding threats and proved to have a knack for grabbing steals and breaking out in transition. Richardson-Smith ranked third in the BIG EAST averaging 17.8 ppg, and knocked down a program record 94 shots from 3-point range. She was also eighth in the conference in rebounding (6.8 rpg) and second in steals (2.4 spg).

Eclipsing 30 points on four different occasions, Richardson-Smith tied her own SHU single-game record of 38 points in a victory over Illinois on Dec. 9, which lead to her being named the USBWA National Player of the Week. Through just three seasons, she is already Seton Hall's all-time 3-point leader with 199, and ranks ninth all-time with 1,321 points.

2015 MBWA All-Metropolitan Honors
First Team
Ka-Deidre Simmons, Seton Hall
Daisha Simmons, Seton Hall
Aaliyah Handford, St. John's
Kelsey Minato, Army
Damika Martinez, Iona
Betnijah Laney, Rutgers

Second Team
Kahleah Copper, Rutgers
Ashunae Durant, Hofstra
Syessence Davis, Rutgers
Danaejah Grant, St. John's
Tabatha Richardson-Smith, Seton Hall

Third Team
Tori Jarosz, Marist
Erika Livermore, FDU
Jasmine Nwajei, Wagner
Tori Oliver, Columbia
Casey Smith, Fairfield

Player of the Year: Ka-Deidre Simmons, Seton Hall
Rookie of the Year: Ashunae Durant, Hofstra
Maggie Dixon Coach of the Year Award: Anthony Bozzella, Seton Hall

http://www.shupirates.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/042015aab.html
 
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