Two Summit League Student-Athletes Honored by South Dakota Sportswriters Association

North Dakota State's Abby Plucker and South Dakota's Bethany Buell were recently honored by the South Dakota Sportswriters Association.  Plucker earned the Independent Female Athlete of the Year award, while Buell was named the College Women’s Athlete of the Year.

Click here to read the entire on article on Plucker and here for the entire article on Buell.

OU's Carlton Featured by White Lake Patch

Athletics and academics has proven to be a recipe for success for Amy Carlton. A 2010 Lakeland High School graduate, Carlton had a distinguished career in the classroom and on the court in high school. She earned the President’s Award for Educational Achievement and the Academic Excellence Award. Carlton was a member of the National Honor Society and was a two-time Board of Education Achievement Award Winner. She was also a member of the Lakeland Leadership program and was the class secretary for two years. 

Carlton was named top female athlete at Lakeland High School in 2010 and earned distinction as a Detroit Free Press Scholar-Athlete Award winner in 2010. She led the basketball team to division and conference championships in 2009, and she was an all-conference and all-district selection in 2009 and 2010. Carlton was also named MVP in 2010 after being named the defensive player of the year, and was an all-conference and all-district soccer player as a senior.

Now, Carlton is a walk-on guard for the Oakland University Grizzles and is majoring in health sciences. She played in nine games for Oakland as a freshman coming off the bench before suffering a season ending injury against Toledo. In addition, she earned a spot on the Summit League All-Academic Team. Carlton came off the bench to score 3 points, and grab 2 rebounds with one assist in the 74-30 victory over Rochester College on Nov. 17.

Click here to read the entire article.

Summit League Hoops in the Media

With the continued success of Summit League men’s basketball at its highest position (12^th) in the Sagarin Ratings this season and No. 13 in the Collegiate Basketball News RPI (rpiratings.com), the league and its teams have been recently featured by various regional and national media outlets.  Below are links to some of the recent news clippings.

- Big Ten No. 1, Summit League makes leap | ESPN Stats & Info (12/20/11)
- Midseason Mid-Major Mojo: Wolters becoming a star | CBSSports Eye on College Basketball (12/20/11)
- It’s good to be Tom Douple | Basketball Prospectus (12/19/11)
- Reggie Hamilton and Florida are honored | NBC Sports Beyond the Arc  (12/19/11)
- South Dakota State has a star, signature win | ESPN College Basketball Nation Blog (12/19/11)
- Wins By SDSU, Oral Roberts Highlight Strength Of Summit League | Yankton Press & Dakotan (12/19/11)
- South Dakota State Basketball Are Viable Contenders with Victory overWashington | Bleacher Report (12/18/11)

OU's Hamilton Named Beyond the Arc's Player of the Week

Oakland's Reggie Hamilton was named Beyond the Arc's National Player of the Week for his performance in the win at Valparaiso. The senior scored 41 points in the victory.

He made 14-24 shots from the floor, hitting five threes and added four assists, four steals and three rebounds. More impressive, however, was the fact that the Grizzlies were down by as much as 17 points in the second half, but Hamilton lead the charge back. He scored the first 12 points during an 17-1 run that trimmed the lead to 61-60 and kept Oakland in the game. It was Hamilton’s final shot of the game that truly made the difference, as he went the length of the court in the final five seconds and banked in a runner as time expired.

Click here to read the rest of the recap and see the video.

UMKC's Women's Golf Helps Habitat for Humanity

The UMKC women's golf team recently took part in a Habitat for Humanity project where they helped reside a 25-year-old Kansas City house.

During their time at the house, the team helped remove loose siding from the house and replace it with new siding.  On site, the girls would place the new siding on the house, making sure that there were no air pockets or space between the individual sides, while also hanging new J-channel around the siding, near the gutters and cutting new pieces of vinyl that fit the area needing replaced.

At the project, the girls had to utilize their teammates in order to hang pieces of the siding and J-channel once they were above the normal reaching height and create an assembly line using three large ladders as they moved across the house to keep the hanging pace.

Summit League Buzzer-Beaters Net National Exposure

Two Summit League basketball teams gained national exposure on ESPN the past week for buzzer-beater winning shots on consecutive days.

Oral Roberts’ Damen Bell-Holter connected on a three-quarter-court shot at the buzzer to give the Golden Eagles a 58-55 win over UALR Monday night. The shot was featured on SportsCenter as the “King of the Night” and on ESPN’s Mike & Mike in the Morning Show. Click here to view the shot.

The day prior, Oakland’s Sharise Calhoun drained a half-court shot at the buzzer to propel the Golden Grizzlies to a 48-45 win over UIC Sunday. The shot was featured on ESPN’s SportsNation and ESPN News on Monday. Click here to view the highlights and game-winning shot.

Three Summit Leaguers Set to Compete at Ninth ISF Junior Women's World Softball Championships

Three Summit League softball players, IPFW's Larissa Franklin, Oakland's Erika Polidori and Southern Utah's Tessa Loewen, all members of the Canadian junior national team will face off against Team USA at the Ninth ISF Junior Women's World Softball Championships in Cape Town, South Africa today.

Team Canada takes the diamond at 12:30 p.m. (EST).

Click here to watch the game live.

SUU's Pelaez-Mailoto Honored by COBRA Magazine

Southern Utah University junior Analaine Pelaez-Mailoto has been named to the COBRA Magazine all-West Region team.

Pelaez-Mailoto led the Thunderbird attack in 2011 with a team-best 515 kills, averaging 4.15 per set. She was also tops on the team with 375 digs and 31 service aces.

The award is Pelaez-Mailoto's second of the postseason, having already garnered her third consecutive first-team all-Summit League honor.

COBRA magazine's purpose is to celebrate the success of volleyball players of African as well as Samoan and Tongan descent in hopes of encouraging young girls of those ethnic groups across the country to pursue the sport. She is the only player in the state of Utah appearing on the list, joining honorees from schools in Hawaii, California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Nebraska.

SDSU's Taevaunn Prince Featured by Argus Leader

The South Dakota State men’s basketball team wasn’t away from Frost Arena long enough to warrant one of those way-back-when retrospectives built around gas prices and hit songs. It only seemed that way.

Still, plenty changed over the course of an eight-game, three-week road trip, the longest in the 17-year tenure of coach Scott Nagy, including: Injury statuses, starting lineups and record – from 1-0 when they left to 6-3 today, the start of a three-game homestand. There were surprises, good and bad.

The play of Taevaunn Prince fits into the former. The freshman guard is averaging 6.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 19.2 minutes with two starts. Although still a work in progress, Prince has exceeded what the SDSU staff expected upon signing him in August.

Click here to read the entire article.

CollegeHoops.Net Selects November All-Conference Teams

IPFW's Frank Gaines

CollegeHoops.net's Jon Teitel selected five players from each league for November All-Conference teams. Five different Summit League schools were represented among the quintet of honorees. Below is the site's Summit League list. The complete list can be found here.

Summit
G Frank Gaines IPFW
G Nate Wolters South Dakota St.
G Reggie Hamilton Oakland
F Dominique Morrison Oral Roberts
F Alex Young IUPUI