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News Release
Harris Tabs a Pair of America East Postseason Honors for UMBC
3/7/2013
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ALBANY, N.Y. – UMBC women’s basketball senior guard Raven Harris (Virginia Beach, Va./Princess Anne/American) earned a pair of America East honors, being named to the All-Conference Second Team and tabbing a spot on the league’s all-defensive team, as announced by the conference office at the annual AEC banquet on Thursday night. The awards were voted upon by the league’s nine coaches.
“Raven had a great season in so many different ways,” head coach Phil Stern said. “She is very deserving of these awards and I’m so proud of her leadership on and off the court.”
The conference honors are the first for the Virginia Beach, Va., native who piloted the Retrievers and narrowly missed out on the league’s scoring title and assists title during conference play, trailing in both categories by .1 at the end of the regular season. Harris scored double-digit points in all but two league games in 2013, including five 20-point efforts, to average a career-best 15.5 points per game, to go along with 4.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
Not only was Harris able to get this done on the offensive end for UMBC, but the senior placed herself in the Retrievers’ record books, re-setting the program’s single-season steals record with 101 takeaways on the year. Harris averaged a conference-best 3.5 steals per game on the season (3.3 spg during conference action) and ranked as high as eighth in Division I in steals per game. She is currently ninth in the country in thefts per outing.
Harris is just the third member of the Retrievers program to earn all-defensive team honors since UMBC joined the America East in 2002-03. She joins former Retrievers’ Sharri Rohde (2006-07) and Tope Obajolu (2010-11).
America East Championship action opens with quarterfinal matchups on Friday, March 8 at SEFCU Arena in Albany, N.Y. No. 3 UMBC takes on No. 6 Vermont in the second game of the day, set for a 2 p.m. start on ESPN3. The Retrievers and Catamounts split a pair of regular-season matchups and have met just once before in postseason action, a 67-56 victory for the black and gold in 2007. The winner will move to Sunday’s semifinals and face the winner of No. 2 Hartford and No. 7 Binghamton.