April 13, 2007

By Ken McDowell Sports Editor - South Platte Sentinel

Sophomores Daria Basova and Roni Whitman and freshman Sarah Conner of the Northeastern Junior College (NJC) Plainswomen basketball team, along with Coach Darrel Parker, recently received post-season honors for the 2006-07 season.

Basova, a 6-2 post player from Moscow, Russia, has been selected as a Third Team All-American, along with being named to the Region IX First team and Region IX Player of the Year.

Whitman, a 5-6 guard from Peetz and Conner, a 5-8 guard from Guernsey, Wyo., were Honorable Mention selections in Region IX.

Parker was selected Co-Coach of the Year in Region IX along with Angelo Hill of Casper, Wyo. College.

Basova and Conner were both selected to the Region IX All-Tournament Team.

The tournament was held March 3-6 in Casper, Wyo.

For the season, Basova averaged 17.5 points-per-game, 10.5 rebounds-per-game.

She had 29 blocked shots, scored 542 points and had 327 rebounds to lead the Plainswomen in those categories.

Whitman averaged 9.3 points-per-game while scoring 280 points, which was third on the team. She led the team in assists with 121 and was second on the squad in steals with 47. She also grabbed 109 rebounds.

Conner stepped up big her freshmen year, scoring 330 points while averaging 10.6 points-per-game, which was second on the team behind Basova. She was also second on the team in rebounds with 204, second in assists with 112 and led the team in steals with 71.

Parker, the former Sterling Lady Tiger coach, took over as head coach of the Plainswomen for Wendy Hirschfeld, who resigned last August. In his first year as head coach he guided the Plainswomen to a 25-7 record and to their first South Sub-Region title since 2001.

Parker was humbled by his selection as Co-Coach of the Year in Region IX in his first year coaching at the junior college level.

"That just goes along with winning," he said. "But maybe even more so with the recruiting, and you have to give Wendy (Hirschfeld) and Dave Huss (assistant coach) a lot of credit for getting the players here.

"You also have to give the players a lot of credit for what they did on the court and how hard they worked to improve all year.

"So anytime someone gets coach of the year the credit goes to the whole team, including the coaching staff and the players."