Three Terrapin Women Selected Midseason Naismith Award Candidates
1/30/2008 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Three Maryland women's basketball players have made the midseason 30-candidate Naismith Award list, including seniors Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper, and junior Kristi Toliver. The trio made the cut list after being selected on of 50 preseason candidates for the award.
Senior Crystal Langhorne (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) is capping her career at Maryland with another outstanding season. After missing six of the first seven games of the season because of injury, she returned to the court and has gone on to recorded eight double-doubles, seven coming in the last 10 games. Ranked third in the nation in field goal percentage (63.7 percent), she is averaging 15.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. A three-time ACC Player of the Week, she is averaging league bests of 21.1 ppg and 11.7 rpg in league play. This season, Langhorne broke the program's scoring record and the Maryland men's and women's rebounding mark. She was the first women's basketball player to grab 1,000 rebounds and is nearing the 2,000-point plateau, which would make her the only Terrapin women's basketball player to achieve the feat.
Junior Kristi Toliver (Harrisonburg, Va./Harrisonburg) is the team's scoring leader with 17.0 ppg, while averaging 8.0 assists per game, which ranks third in the nation. It currently also ties the single-season ACC record, which is held by former Terrapin Tara Heiss. One of the Nancy Lieberman Award's "Players Making a Buzz", she leads the ACC in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.86). Earlier this season, she scored her 1,000th point and broke the career record for most threes made by a Terrapin all-time. She also owns the school career record for free throw percentage (86.1), which also ranks second all-time in the ACC.
Senior Laura Harper (Elkins Park, Pa./Cheltenham) makes the cut for the second-straight year. She is averaging 14.1 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. She is shooting a career-best 62.6 percent, which ranks fourth in the nation behind Langhorne. Earlier this season, she also eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau and was selected ACC Player of the Week for the first time in her career and has had seven double-doubles this season.
The Naismith Award is presented to the nation's top collegiate women's basketball player. Maryland was the only team in the nation to have three candidates and one of four teams to have multiple candidates. The list includes 31 midseason candidates in all which were voted on by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors, comprised of leading basketball journalists, coaches and administrators from around the country. The board based the criteria on player performances this season.
Fans will have a voice in selecting the winner by voting by text messaging "VOTE" to 87654. The fan vote will account for 25 percent of the selection process. Votes can be cast until April 5th. For more information, visit www.naismithawards.com.
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