Posted: Feb 27, 2012
FREDONIA – The State University of New York Athletic Conference has announced the Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year awards for the 2011-12 women’s basketball season. The awards are voted on by the conference coaches.
For the second straight year, the Player of the Year award goes to Cortland’s Brittany Cohen (Fayetteville/Jamesville-Dewitt). Cohen led the Red Dragons to a 10-8 conference record where they earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament and advanced to the SUNYAC semifinals with a win over No. 4 Geneseo. Cortland set a new tournament game record against Geneseo, knocking down 14 three-pointers as Cohen netted six of them. She averaged 15.1 points and 5.2 assists in 18 league games and totaled 36 steals. Overall on the season she finished with 410 points, 147 assists and 48 steals. Cohen led the Red Dragons in scoring in 16 games and tied her career high of 28 points on Feb. 17 against Fredonia. It is the fourth straight year the Player of the Year has been awarded to a Cortland Player and eighth time overall. Cohen is the seventh player in SUNYAC women’s basketball history to earn the Player of the Year honors back-to-back.
For the second straight year, the Player of the Year award goes to Cortland’s Brittany Cohen (Fayetteville/Jamesville-Dewitt). Cohen led the Red Dragons to a 10-8 conference record where they earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament and advanced to the SUNYAC semifinals with a win over No. 4 Geneseo. Cortland set a new tournament game record against Geneseo, knocking down 14 three-pointers as Cohen netted six of them. She averaged 15.1 points and 5.2 assists in 18 league games and totaled 36 steals. Overall on the season she finished with 410 points, 147 assists and 48 steals. Cohen led the Red Dragons in scoring in 16 games and tied her career high of 28 points on Feb. 17 against Fredonia. It is the fourth straight year the Player of the Year has been awarded to a Cortland Player and eighth time overall. Cohen is the seventh player in SUNYAC women’s basketball history to earn the Player of the Year honors back-to-back.
Geneseo freshman Shannon McGinnis (Walworth/Gananda) averaged 10.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per conference game on her way to earning Rookie of the Year honors. She is the second Geneseo rookie to earn the award joining 1994-95 honoree Megan Mackey. Overall on the season her 264 points ranked second for the Knights, one behind the leader. She shot 41.6 percent from the field and knocked down 20 shots from behind the arc. McGinnis led Geneseo in scoring seven times and dominated the glass with game highs on ten occasions. She posted a season high of 21 points on Feb. 10th against Buffalo State and grabbed a season high 12 rebounds against Old Westbury in November.
Buffalo State head coach Susan Roarke has been name the Coach of the Year for the first time in her career. In her sixth season at the helm, she guided her team to a 16-2 conference record and a third consecutive SUNYAC playoff appearance. The Bengals earned the No. 1 seed in the SUNYAC tournament and hosted its first home playoff games since 2003 before falling in the Championship game to Oneonta, 50-41. Buffalo State went 25-3 overall, tying the school record for wins in a season while setting a new mark of 23 regular season wins. Roarke is the third Buffalo State coach to earn the SUNYAC Coach of the Year honor, joining Gail Maloney (1984, 1989, 1994) and Fred Batchelor (2002).
2011-12 All-Conference Teams
