Shepard-Hall, Champion Named to Women's Basketball All-MAC Teams

3/7/2005

Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (left) and Crystal Champion are two key components of Marshall's Co-East Division title team and received postseason honors from the Mid-American Conference on Monday. Photos by Rick Haye

CLEVELAND – The Mid-American Conference announced today that Marshall guard Sikeetha Shepard-Hall (Houston, Texas) and forward Crystal Champion (Washington, D.C.) were named to two of the five All-MAC women’s basketball teams. Shepard-Hall was selected to the All-MAC second team and Champion to the honorable mention squad. Voting was conducted by the league’s 13 head coaches.

In her third season at Marshall, junior Shepard-Hall picked up the third All-MAC accolade of her career. An all-freshman team member in 2002-03 and an honorable mention selection last season, Shepard-Hall paced the Co-East Division champion Thundering Herd in scoring and was ninth in the MAC with 15.2 points per game. She upped that average to 17.1 points in conference games (6th in MAC) and converted 46.9 percent of her shot attempts.

Shepard-Hall is one of the MAC’s most lethal threats from 3-point range (37.5 percent, 6th in MAC). She tied her career-high with five treys in the regular season finale versus Akron and is fourth all-time in 3-pointers at Marshall with 114, only 22 behind Natal Rosko’s 136 long range bombs.

Shepard-Hall scored her 1,000th career point on Feb. 5 at Miami (Ohio) and cracked MU’s top-10 for career scoring with her 24 points against the Zips last week. Her career-high 30 points at Ohio on Feb. 9 was one of only five 30-point games in the MAC this year, which guided her to her first career MAC East Division Player of the Week nod.

Champion, a sophomore, earned all-MAC recognition for the first time in her career. She ended the regular season in a tie for third place with Bowling Green’s Liz Honnegger in rebounding (8.0/game). In MAC-only games, Champion grabbed 8.4 boards per contest and nearly averaged a double-double as she netted 10.1 points per game. The league’s leader in offensive rebounds (3.3/game), Champion pulled down a league-high 18 rebounds in a Jan. 8 game at Kent State, the sixth best rebounding game in Marshall history.

Champion posted all six of her career double-doubles this season, the third most in the MAC. She was a two-time MAC East Division Player of the Week selection this season.

Marshall (18-9, 12-4 MAC) received a first-round bye in the 2005 Kraft MAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 Toledo in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at Gund Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m., or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Ohio/Kent State game.

FIRST TEAM ALL-MAC
Ryan Coleman, Eastern Michigan
Melissa DeGrate, Kent State
Kate Endress, Ball State
Carrie Moore, Western Michigan
Lindsay Shearer, Kent State

SECOND TEAM ALL-MAC
Liz Honegger, Bowling Green
Kelly Koerber, Western Michigan
Ali Mann, Bowling Green
Cindi Merrill, Miami
Sikeetha Shepard-Hall, Marshall

THIRD TEAM ALL-MAC
Danielle Bishop, Toledo
Erika Ford, Eastern Michigan
Karin Hoogendam, Toledo
Nikki Knapp, Eastern Michigan
Stephanie Raymond, Northern Illinois

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-MAC
Crystal Champion, Marshall
Carin Horne, Bowling Green
Amanda Jackson, Miami
Simone Redd, Ohio
Malika Willoughby, Kent State

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Kate Achter, Bowling Green
Julie DeMuth, Ball State
Simone Redd, Ohio
Olivia Terry, Toledo
Heather Turner, Buffalo