Women's Basketball brings home big conference awards

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne University women's basketball grabbed a couple of big accolades in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The awards were announced in between the semifinal rounds of the women's basketball SLIAC Tournament on Thurday, February 23rd.

Senior Emmie Haring was named Co-Player of the Year, the sixth Griffin to garner the award and first since Kaitlin Bramel took it home in 2010. She also grabbed first team all-conference accolades and was named to the All-Defensive Team. Haring leads NCAA Division III with 190 assists and broke her own single-game and single-season records this year. She is also the all-time SLIAC leader with 571 assists. Haring averaged 9.1 points per game and 8.2 assists per game against conference opponents. She leads Fontbonne with an 86.7 - percent accuracy at the free throw line and is third in the league with 66 steals. She has three double-doubles on the year. This is the third time Haring has earned all-conference accolades in her career.

Freshman Raven Venegas was named Newcomer of the Year, the fifth in the history of Fontbonne basketball. She was named as second team All-SLIAC. The Wisconsin native hit a career-high 24 points in a much-needed win at home against Spalding which solidified a spot for the Griffins in the SLIAC Tournament. She scored 13 of those in the fourth quarter alone. In her first collegiate game, Venegas recorded a double-double at the University of Dallas and tallied one more in the Griffins' upset against Eureka College. Prior to the tournament, Raven averaged 10.7 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game against SLIAC opponents. She has 232 points and 144 rebounds and is third on the team with 33 steals and also has 29 assists.

Senior Lauren Willis was chosen to represent Fontbonne on the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team. Head coach Maureen Sias had this to say about Willis, "Lauren has stepped up and been a great leader this year by encouraging her teammates and cheering them on. This semester she's been student teaching, which is very time consuming, but she always comes to practice and games with a positive attitude."