STANDISH, Maine - The Maine Women's Basketball Coaches Association (MWBCA) postseason awards have been released and three Saint Joseph's College team members have been recognized.
Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83 has been selected as the 2018 MBCWA Coach of the Year, junior guard Kelsi McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) has collected First Team All-State honors, and junior guard Julia Champagne (Brunswick, Maine) has garnered Second Team All-State accolades.
McDevitt claims MWBCA Coach of the Year honors for the second-consecutive season - and third time overall (1999, 2017, 2018) - after leading the Monks to a 28-2 overall record, including a 16-0 mark in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play during his 26th season (25th at SJC) on the bench. Under his watch, Saint Joseph's won the GNAC Championship for the third-consecutive season - and fourth in the last five years - and claimed an NCAA Tournament berth for the fourth time in program history. While playing in the national tourney, McDevitt's Monks defeated UMass.-Boston, 61-56, for the first NCAA postseason win in team history, and fell just short in a 53-47 setback at the hands of reigning national champion Amherst College the following evening.
The 2017-18 women's basketball team established a new program record for victories in a season and shattered the previous SJC Athletics winning streak record (23) with 27-consecutive wins, a streak that began with a win over Keene State College on November 18th and ended on March 3rd.
McDevitt, who notched his 500th career win at Saint Joseph's this winter, was also chosen as the GNAC Coach of the Year for the second-consecutive season and has collected 12 'Coach of the Year' honors during his collegiate career.
McNamara earns First Team All-State accolades for the second year in a row after averaging 18.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 42.3% (187-442) from the floor, 39.6% (90-227) from three-point range, and 81.8% (99-121) from the FT line during her junior season. She led all Maine NCAA DIII players in assist/turnover ratio (1.88), assists (169), assists per game, field goal attempts, points (563), points per game, three-pointers made, and three-pointers per game (3.0).
McNamara, who earned five MWBCA Player of the Week honors this winter, became just the seventh Saint Joseph's player to surpass the 1,000-point plateau during their junior season and completed her third collegiate campaign with 1, 431 points, which is already the eighth-highest total in team history. She also broke the Monks' single-season and career records for three-pointers made (90/234) and attempted (227/608) this season.
Champagne garners All-State honors for the first time in her career after averaging 12.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 48.6% (126-259) from the field, 39.5% (45-114) from beyond the arc, and 80.6% (83-103) from the charity stripe this winter.
Champagne ranked second on the team in scoring, rebounding, FG%, free throws made (83), assists (70), and steals (45) during her junior campaign and heads into her senior season with 713 points and 424 rebounds in 88 career contests.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
