Bailey named WCC Player of the Year, Eaton makes First Team

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — The West Coast Conference announced its 2014-15 awards with BYU's Morgan Bailey garnering the league's top honor as the Player of the Year.

Morgan Bailey Video

Bailey, along with teammate Lexi Eaton, were named to the All-WCC Women’s Basketball First Team. This is the second-straight first team accolade for Eaton and the first for Bailey. For the second-straight time, a BYU player has taken the league’s top honor.

Bailey, a 6-foot-2 senior forward from Orem, Utah, and Timpanogos High School, finished conference play ranked first in field goal percentage, .517 (134-259), first in defensive rebounds (9.1), second in rebounding (10.9) and fourth in scoring (18.0). She garnered two Player of the Week citations during the season.

On the Cougar team, she ranks first in rebounding (10.7), has team’s best field goal percentage at .516 (216-419), is first in blocks with a total of 19, ranks second in scoring (18.0) and is third in assists (2.6).

Eaton, a 5-10 junior guard from Springville, Utah and Springville High School, led the league in scoring (21.4), 11th rebounding (6.8), tied for seventh place in 3-point field goals made (2.1) and was tied for ninth in assists (3.0).

On the team, Eaton tops the leaderboard in scoring (20.5), has the best 3-point field goal percentage at .404 (63-156), is second in assists (2.93) and is third in rebounding (6.5).

Defender of the Year honors went to San Diego’s Sophia Ederaine, while Saint Mary’s Stella Beck was named Newcomer of the Year.

There was a three-way tie for coach of the year honors with Gonzaga’s Lisa Fortier, Lynne Roberts, from Pacific and Saint Mary’s head coach, Paul Thomas.

The Cougar women finished the WCC regular season campaign with a 12-6 record, 20-9 overall and will be the No. 5 seed entering this week’s league tournament. BYU plays No. 4 seed Saint Mary’s on Thurs. , Mar. 5 at 8 p.m. PST, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The game will be carried live on BYUtv.

A win over the Gaels would send the Cougars into one of two semifinal games to be played on Mon., Mar. 9.

To view a full list of conference awards view the WCC release.