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Senior Stacey Anthony |
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Heading into the 2006 Advance Auto Parts Big South Conference Championships, the Birmingham-Southern women's basketball team landed three players on the post-season honors list. Senior Stacey Anthony was named Second Team All-Conference, Ashley Thornton was named to the All-Freshman squad, and sophomore Reba Ross was named to the Academic All-Conference team.
Anthony, a guard from Bastrop, La., leads the team in scoring for the second straight season, averaging 10.3 points a game, which puts her at 10th in the conference stats. She is also second in the Big South in three-point field goal percentage (.407) and first in three-pointers per game (2.44) for the second straight season. After Anthony was a Preseason All-Conference pick, she became BSC's career steals leader this season and broke both the single-game and single-season three-pointer records. She has scored in double figures in 12 games with one 20-point game, and led the team in scoring eight times. Anthony was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Islanders Classic at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in December,
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Freshman Ashley Thornton |
and was named Big South Co-Player of the Week, Feb. 20.
Thornton is averaging 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds a game after missing the first seven games of the season due to a knee injury. The forward from Pinson, Ala., posted two straight career-high scoring games with 11 points, Jan. 14, and then 17 points, Jan. 16, and pulled down a career-high eight boards twice in a row on Feb. 13 & 18. Thornton has had four double-figure scoring games, and has led the team in scoring three times and rebounding twice. She shot .400 or better in 11 of 20 games this season, and shot .500 or better in 10 of those games. Thornton was named Big South Freshman of the week twice (Jan. 23 & Feb. 13) this season.
Ross, a forward from Clayton, Ala., has had a breakout sophomore season, leading the Big South with her .528 field goal percentage and leading the Panthers with 6.8 rebounds a game, which puts her at sixth in the conference. She shot .400 or better in 24 of 27 games this year, and .500 or better 17 times. Ross has posted five double-doubles this season
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Sophomore Reba Ross |
and became BSC's first-ever Big South Player of the Week on Feb. 6. She has scored in double figures 16 times this season, the most on the team, with seven double-figure rebounding games, and led the team in scoring four times, rebounding 18 times, and blocks 15 times. Ross moved into seventh place on BSC's all-time rebounding list this season as a sophomore and is tied for third on the blocked shots list. She is an education major and carries a 3.572 grade point average.
The sixth-seeded Panthers begin post-season play this Tuesday, Mar. 7, as they travel to take on third-seeded Coastal Carolina in the first round of the Big South Championship at 7 p.m. EST in Kimbel Arena.