March 17, 2005

DAYTON, OH - The University of Dayton women's basketball team handed out its team awards Sunday afternoon. Head coach Jim Jabir announced the team's Scholar Athlete Award, Most Improved Player Award, Coaches' Award, White-Allen Most Outstanding Player Award, and honored senior Emily Williams at the team's annual banquet at UD Arena.

Junior forward Cara Wright earned the White-Allen Most Outstanding Player Award after leading the team in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage. She posted a 12.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, while shooting .533 from the field. In the Atlantic 10 Tournament opening round, Wright picked up her 13th double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Freshmen Kiki Lund and Karah Cloxton were each awarded the Scholar Athlete Award. Lund, a Communication major, posted a 3.977 GPA, which narrowly topped Cloxton's 3.952 in Biology. On the court, Lund averaged 1.9 points per game in 26 appearances. She scored a career-high 10 points at George Washington on February 6. Cloxton played in 16 games with a 1.7 PPG average, and went for a career-high eight points with four assists against then No. 17 Temple on February 20.

Redshirt sophomore Jennifer Strong picked up the Most Improved Player Award. Strong posted a 8.9 per game scoring average, but increased her three-point shooting percentage from .239 last season (21-of-88) to .367 (29-of-79). She dropped two 20+ point games (21 at Fordham and a career-high 23 at Xavier), and added 18 points on seven-of-nine shooting against then No. 17 Temple on February 20.

Center Angela Cape, was given the Coaches' Award, which goes to the player who best exemplifies the work ethic, character and integrity of the Dayton Basketball progam. Cape, a red-shirt junior after an ACL tear as a freshman, was second on the team in rebounding with 5.2 per contest and added 6.4 points per game. She posted four double-figure scoring games and scored eight or more points nine times. She grabbed seven or more boards nine times, including 13 against Detroit. She set her career-high in points with 16 in UD's win against La Salle.

The Flyers also honored senior guard Emily Williams and senior manager Darrin Knapke. Williams ends her career at UD with 105 games played, 796 career points, 166 assists and 96 three-pointers made. She opened the 2004-2005 season with 25 points to lead UD to a 66-56 win at Akron. She followed that performance up with a 15-point, eight-rebound effort against Chicago State. Williams set a then career-high with 26 points in UD's win at Cleveland State and was among the Atlantic 10 conference's leading scorers in non-league play. She added 13 points in UD's win at Wright State, earned a spot on the Florida International Fun & Sun Classic All-Tournament Team after scoring nine versus Brown and 12 versus FIU as UD finished second. Led UD with 17 points and seven boards in the Flyers' win over Rhode Island.

She saved her best performance for her final home game, dropping a career-high 29 points in UD's upset bid versus Richmond. Scored 11 points in the A-10 Tournament loss to Fordham, and ended her career by sinking three-straight free throws after being fouled shooting a three with under one second to go.

The Flyers finished the 2004-2005 campaign with a record of 12-16 (6-10 in the Atlantic 10). With a 10-game improvement over last season, Dayton owned the fourth-largest turnaround from last season in the NCAA. The Flyers return 13 of 14 players for next season, with Williams the only departure.