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University of Houston Athletics
Houston, Jones Headline Conference USA Awards
3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 1, 2002
Houston forward Chandi Jones, the Conference USA Freshman of the Year and nation's leading freshman scorer in 2001, headline the list of Conference USA award winners announced by the league. A ceremony was held at the Conrad Hilton in Chicago, Ill., site of the 2002 Conference USA Tournament.
Jones followed up her Freshman of th4e Year honor last season by being named the C-USA Player of the Year as a sophomore, just the second underclassmen to win the honor. She returned from a torn ACL that caused her to miss the final 12 games of last season to lead C-USA in scoring at 22.5 points per game, scoring at a 25.6 clip per outing in conference play. Jones reached the 1,000-point plateau faster than any other player in league history, reaching the milestone in 46 games, 11 games faster than anyone else. She has reached double figures in scoring in all 47 of her career games. Jones was also named to the First Team All-Conference for the second straight year.
In addition to Jones' awards, fellow sophomore guard Nicole Oliver, who was second on the Lady Cougar squad in rebounding and steals, was named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year. Oliver ranked sixth in the conference overall in steals while helping the Lady Cougars limit their opponents to just 64.3 points per game.
Freshman Shondra Bush, who was second on the Lady Cougar squad in scoring and led the team in assists, was named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. Bush was joined by Cincinnati's Debbie Merrill, the C-USA Freshman of the Year, Katie Alsdurf of Marquette, Jenni Dant of DePaul and Sandora Irvin of TCU.
