St. John's University Athletics
Aliyyah Handford Tabbed To All-Met First Team
4/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 22, 2014
QUEENS, N.Y. - Sophomore guard Aliyyah Handford was named to the All-Met Division I women's college basketball first team as announced by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association. Handford led the St. John's women's basketball team in scoring all season and guided the Red Storm to its fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Newark, N.J. native enjoyed a record-breaking campaign and was also named a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention selection, selected to the WBCA Region I All-America team, the All-BIG EAST First Team and BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.
Handford, the 2013 All-Met Rookie of the Year, is the 11th all-time student-athlete from the St. John's women's basketball program to be named to the MBWA first team.
"It is a great honor to be recognized by the MBWA and the coaches around the area after an exciting season for our program," stated Handford.
The sophomore guard was St. John's top scorer at 16.7 points per game, which ranked fifth in the BIG EAST, and posted the first two double-doubles of her career this season. Handford broke the program's 38-year single-season record for most points by a sophomore. Handford finished with 567 points in 2013-14 and ranked fifth in the conference in field goal percentage with a 48.3 percent mark. She was also 16th in the conference in rebounding, pulling down 5.1 rebounds per contest. Handford established herself as a defensive stalwart in her sophomore campaign as she paced the team with 2.0 steals per game, good for fifth in the BIG EAST.
Handford had 11 20-plus point scoring outings this season, including a career-high 32-point outburst in the second game of the season against Iona. She provided one of the highlights of the Red Storm's season when she scored the game-winning basket with 2.8 seconds remaining in regulation to down No. 24 Texas A&M in the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 22, capping a 27-point performance. Handford also had the best BIG EAST scoring game of her career with 25 points against Villanova on Feb. 15 and averaged 18.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals in the 2014 BIG EAST Tournament. Handford, who averaged 25.0 ppg over two games in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, scored 27 points behind a career-high 11 made free throws in the Red Storm's 71-68 first round win over USC on March 22.
