Woodin, Lieber Take Heartlands’ Top Honors (3/7/07)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings senior Michelle Lieber has been named the Heartland Conference Player of the Year for the second-straight year.  The 6-foot-0 forward from Gillette, Wyo., topped the women’s basketball all-conference teams announced on Wednesday.  Yellowjacket head coach Kevin Woodin was named the Heartland Conference Coach of the Year.

Woodin	Lieber	Carpenter	Henderson	Marquis

The Yellowjackets placed four players on the all-conference teams after winning the Heartland regular season and conference tournament championships.  MSUB, 22-9, will play at the NCAA South Central Regional starting Friday in St. Joseph, MO.

Lieber earned her second player of the year award despite missing six games because of injury.  She averaged 8.9 rebounds and 16.8 points per game, ranking first and second respectively in the conference statistical rankings in those categories.  She also led the conference and the nation in field goal percentage with at 70.3 percent.  In her three-year career at MSUB, Lieber has over 1,000 points and 700 rebounds.

Sophomore guard Alira Carpenter (Lewistown, MT) was also named to the All-Heartland First Team.  She led the Heartland in scoring and 3-point shooting, averaging 16.9 points and 2.7 made 3-pointers per game.  Carpenter broke the single-season MSUB school record with 85 threes this season.  She also scored 525 points, the fifth-most in school history for a season.  Carpenter was an honorable mention All-Heartland selection as a freshman.

Freshmen Dani Henderson (Reed Point, MT) and Shantell Marquis (Cascade, MT) were selected to the All-Heartland Honorable Mention team.  Both played in all 31 games and started 28 this season.  Henderson averaged 6.4 points and 5.8 rebounds a game.  Marquis averaged 7.4 points and 4.7 rebounds.  She also had 71 steals, the fourth-most in school history for a single season.

Woodin was selected as the league’s top coach after his second-straight regular season title.  In three seasons, Woodin is 61-25 with two 20+ win seasons.  He is already tied for third in school history for career wins.  This is the second time Woodin has taken the Yellowjackets to the NCAA Tournament.