St. John's University Athletics
Aliyyah Handford Named WBCA All-America Honorable Mention
4/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 5, 2014
QUEENS, N.Y. - Sophomore guard Aliyyah Handford was selected to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-America Honorable Mention team after leading the St. John's women's basketball team in scoring all season and guiding the Red Storm to its fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Newark, N.J. native enjoyed a record-breaking campaign and was also named to the All-BIG EAST First Team and BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.
There were 52 candidates who were considered for the 10-member WBCA All-America squad, who were named on Saturday, prior to the Final Four in Nashville. Connecticut's Stefanie Dolson, Bria Hartley and Breanna Stewart, Nebraska's Jordan Hooper, Jewell Loyd and Kayla McBride of Notre Dame, Tiffany Mitchell from South Carolina, Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike, Odyssey Sims of Baylor and Maryland's Alyssa Thomas make up 2014's 10-member squad.
Handford, voted by WBCA members as one of 12 members of the Region I All-America team, 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, who averaged 25.0 ppg over two games in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, 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. Despite her designated position as a guard, Handford 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 was the seventh Region I All-American selection in the history of the program. Nadirah McKenith and Shenneika Smith, the first St. John's players to be selected in the WNBA Draft, were named last season after stellar senior campaigns.
This was the 40th year of the WBCA Coaches' All-America program, which began in 1975. Once again all 10 members of the team were present to be honored in person during the ceremony. Remarkably, in the 40-year history of the program, none of the 400 Coaches' All-Americans thus far honored have failed to appear for the announcement.
