March 10, 2010

FOUR RAMS EARN SPOTS ON ALL-CAA SQUADS
Waller named Defensive Player of the Year; Moss, Hurt earn First, Third Team honors

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Four Virginia Commonwealth University women’s basketball players received All-Colonial Athletic Association accolades Wednesday evening at the conference’s annual pre-tournament awards banquet on the campus of James Madison University.

Senior guard Kita Waller was named CAA Defensive Player of the Year to go along with her second team All-CAA and All-CAA Defensive Team selections.  Classmate D’Andra Moss received first team All-CAA honors and sophomore forward Courtney Hurt earned a spot on the All-CAA Third Team.  In addition, Hurt and sophomore center Chelsea Snyder garnered All-Academic Honorable Mention recognition.

 Waller was consistently among the league leaders in steals, 3-point field goal percentage and scoring the entire season and finished the year tops in the CAA with 2.6 steals per game.  She shot .385 from long range, the league’s second best mark, and ranked among the top 10 averaging 15.5 points per game.

Earlier this season, the Gainesville, Ga., native became the 17th player in school history to score 1,000 career points as she and Moss accomplished the feat in a win against Old Dominion on Feb. 7, marking the second time in the last three seasons two VCU players have reached the 1,000-point plateau in the same game.  She also tied the program’s single game record with 35 points against UNC Wilmington.

After averaging 9.9 points per game prior to suffering a season-ending knee injury in 2008-09, Moss fully recovered and burst onto the scene in her senior campaign contributing in a team-best 17.5 points per outing.  She has ranked among the league’s top 10 in nearly every offensive category, including sixth in scoring, sixth in free throw percentage (.810), seventh in 3-point field goal percentage (.363) and tied for ninth in offensive rebounds (2.6 per game).  Moss averaged a team-high 33.0 minutes per game and ranked ninth in the league with 1.9 steals per contest.

The Atlanta, Ga., native registered five double-doubles and scored at least 20 points in nine games this season.  She tied a VCU single game record hitting 10-of-10 from the free throw line at Winthrop before hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left against Delaware.

Meanwhile, Hurt, who scored a career-high 26 points with 10 rebounds against Towson on Jan. 10 in her first collegiate start, never looked back and has served as a legitimate threat in the post for the Rams this season.  She finished the regular season averaging 12.9 points per game and ranked third in the league with 8.2 rebounds per outing.  

Hurt registered a team-high 10 double-doubles, including three straight to finish the year, and scored in double figures in 20 of VCU’s last 24 games.  The Loganville, Ga., native recorded at least one block on 15 occasions with three coming against Richmond, Radford and UNC Wilmington.

The Rams, who will serve as the No. 3 seed in this week’s CAA Women’s Basketball Championship, face the winner of No. 6 Hofstra/No. 11 William & Mary in the quarterfinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the James Madison University Convocation Center.