St. Scholastica’s Hovick Named Freshman of the Year

Feb 28, 2012

Northland Sports Online

For the second consecutive season, the St. Scholastica women’s basketball team has had a player selected as the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Co-Freshman Player of the Year. This year the honor goes to guard Mariah Hovick (Prior Lake, Minn. /Prior Lake HS); it was announced on Tuesday.

Hovick, who was also chosen as a second team All-UMAC performer, shared UMAC Freshman of the Year honors with Kendra Wycoff of the University of Minnesota-Morris.

Hovick led the Saints in scoring in 19 of the 25 games this past season and averaged 13.6 points per game in league play and 12.4 overall. In the last six games of the season, including the UMAC Tournament semifinal, Hovick averaged 15.5 points per contest. She was also a pest defensively for opposing players as she tied for a conference-best with 70 steals.

In league games this year, Hovick finished in the top 10 in scoring (8th), assists (6th), steals (5th), assist-to-turnover ratio (9th) and minutes played (10th).

Last season’s co-Freshman of the Year, guard Kayla Heisler (Remer, Minn. /Northland HS), was an honorable mention All-UMAC choice for the second consecutive year. Heisler was second on the team in scoring, averaging 8.8 points per game. She led the team with 40 made 3-point field goals, including 26 in league play, which ranked sixth in the conference.

Senior forward Laura Amys (South Range, Wis. /Superior HS) was named to the UMAC All-Defensive Team for the second straight season. Amys led the conference in blocked shots with 47 and was sixth in rebounding with 7.2 boards per game. She was also ninth in steals with 42. In a game against Northland College this season, Amys broke the program record for blocked shots in a career and would finish with 141 overall. She also finished third on the program list for career rebounds, pulling down 653 in four years.

The other senior on the team, Taylor Fellbaum (Minong, Wis. /Northwood HS), received the conference’s sportsmanship awarded, given to one player from each team.

Erica Babinec of Martin Luther College was named the UMAC Player of the Year and Minnesota-Morris head coach Tim Grove was named the league’s coach of the year.

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