O’Donnell Headlines All-Skyline Women’s Basketball Team as Player of the Year; Flahive Picked Coach of the Year; Sequeira Lands on All-Sportsmanship
NEW YORK — The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's basketball team collected two major awards as junior Kelly O'Donnell (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Edmund Prep) was named Player of the Year and Head Coach Tom Flahive was picked Coach of the Year as the Skyline Conference released the 2019-20 All-Conference Team this morning. Junior Deserae Sequeira (Clark, N.J./Arthur L. Johnson) was also recognized to the All-Sportsmanship Team.
Also named to the All-Skyline First Team for the second-straight season, O'Donnell becomes the first women's basketball student-athlete to be named Skyline Player of the Year and the first to receive three All-Skyline selections.
The 5-foot-10 guard was one of the most prolific scorers in the nation producing double-figures in all but one of 28 games this season and totaled 609 points, which currently ranks third in Division III. Averaging a Skyline-best 21.8 points per game with 10.0 rebounds, O'Donnell was one of just two players in the league to average a double-double and recorded 11 on the season.
The Player of the Year honor highlights leading her team to the Skyline Championship final and two milestones achieved this season — scoring her 1,000th and 1,500th career points. The top career scorer among all juniors, she will enter her senior season with 1,555 points and 766 rebounds.
In his fifth year at the helm of the Bears, Flahive guided the Bears to a fourth-place regular-season finish and their fourth Skyline Championship tournament appearance in five years. St. Joseph's advanced to the final for the first time in program history and took runner-up honors, ending their season with an 18-10 record — the most wins in the team's NCAA era and the most wins since the 2005-06 season. Flahive is the first SJC coach in any sport to be named Skyline Coach of the Year.
Sequeira was one of the top playmakers in the nation handing out a Skyline-best 6.1 assists per game that also placed her in the top 10 in Division III. Also a three-time All-Skyline honoree in women's soccer, she joined O'Donnell as the only two Bears to start in all 28 games this season.
The All-Conference teams and Player, Defensive Player, Rookie, and Coach of the Year are selected by the league's 11 head coaches in a vote at the conclusion of the regular season.
#SkylineWBB All-Conference Team Announced
# # #
2020 Skyline Conference Women's Basketball All-Conference Team
First Team
Morina Bojka, Mount Saint Mary (Jr., F; Prospect, Conn.)
DarNeisha Brice, Mount Saint Vincent (Sr., G; Lexington Park, Md.)
Sarah Coutu, Manhattanville (Jr., G; Cranston, R.I.)
Kaleigh D'Arcy, USMMA (Sr., G; White Plains, N.Y.)
Kelly O'Donnell, St. Joseph's-Brooklyn (Jr., G; Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Davida Warren, Old Westbury (Sr., C; Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Second Team
Alyssa Adomaites, St. Joseph's-Long Island (Fr., G; E. Northport, N.Y.)
Taylor Hightower, USMMA (Sr., G/F; White Plains, Md.)
Annie Keenan, Mount Saint Mary (So., F; Nesconset, N.Y.)
Yuval Nitzan, Yeshiva (Fr., G; Gan Yavne, Israel)
Amanda Pemberton, Manhattanville (Jr., G/F; Las Vegas, Nev.)
Anna Zaborowska, Farmingdale State (Jr., G; E. Patchogue, N.Y.)
Player of the Year: Kelly O'Donnell, St. Joseph's-Brooklyn
Defensive Player of the Year: Taylor Hightower, USMMA
Rookie of the Year: Alyssa Adomaites, St. Joseph's-Long Island
Coach of the Year: Tom Flahive, St. Joseph's-Brooklyn (fifth season)
# # #
All-Sportsmanship Team
Mackenzie Tierney, Farmingdale State
Alana Anderson, Manhattanville
Lauren Desrats, Mount Saint Mary
Gabriela Goldman, Mount Saint Vincent
Antonia Brown, Old Westbury
Alfa DeJesus, Purchase
Deserae Sequeira, St. Joseph's-Brooklyn
Alyssa Signor, St. Joseph's-Long Island
Camryn Davis, Sarah Lawrence
Madison Demos, USMMA
Adina Rosenberg, Yeshiva