WEABL: 2023/24 Regular Season Award Winners Announced

The 2023/24 WEABL regular season is over, giving the opportunity to look back at some of the year's top performances.

MVP, All-Conference 1st and 2nd teams, Most Improved Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, U17 Player of the Year and Coach of the Year are all up for grabs, giving some players the chance to top off their impressive seasons with well-deserved accolades.

Congratulations to all those chosen and don’t forget you can still attend this week's WEABL playoff final between Copleston and CoLA at Manchester’s National Basketball Performance Academy.

Tickets to attend the final are free, but still need to be obtained for capacity reasons. To secure your ticket, please head to the Basketball England shop by clicking here.

MVP

Erin Powell is the unanimous choice for this year's North conference MVP. 

The Charnwood College Riders' standout was a menace across the campaign, finishing with a WEABL-best 24.8PPG and multiple Player of the Week picks.

The 2021/22 U17 Player of the Year winner also led the league's efficiency charts, adding 6.1APG, 11.1RPG and 1.4BPG to a truly impressive year.

Charnwood went 9-0 this season to seal top spot, and with Powell's production at their disposal, it's not hard to see why.

South MVP goes to another conference winner in the form of Copleston's Liv Forster.

The talented shooter certainly lit things up for her side this season, contributing 15.0PPG along with 6.1APG as the guard drove an offence that averaged 86.4PPG across the campaign despite averaging just over 25 minutes per game.

Forster also shone in the two games against Copleston's next closest rivals CoLA this season, particularly in March's trip to London when Forster netted 23 points that also included five triples in a narrow 76-74 victory. 

Coach of the Year

Given their perfect record this season, it is no surprise to see Nick Moodey named as the North Coach of the Year.

Charnwood not only went perfect across their schedule, they also did it in dominant fashion. With a +247 point difference across their nine games, the Riders were firing at both ends of the court this season.

Moodey also got the best out of MVP Erin Powell and her continued development, along with helping to nurture strong statistical seasons from the likes of Louise Fisher, Emily Taylor and others.

Continuing the theme, there is another award heading to Copleston and this time it's for head coach Nick Drane.

Given Copleston's strong showing across the WEABL for a number of seasons, including five Final Four appearances and a shared playoff title in the COVID-affected 2019/20 season, this is remarkably Drane's first Coach of the Year honour.

With the Suffolk programme providing this year's MVP pick plus three other All-Conference selections, Drane is a worthy choice and clearly earned the plaudits from his fellow coaches this year.

All Conference 1st Team

Powell takes up her automatic spot in the First team, and she has some lofty company across the other four selections.

Nottingham duo Samantha Mullock (15.3PPG, 16.8RPG) and Valerie Cassidy De Falco (19.9PPG, 6.9APG) were both stats leaders, with Mullock taking the rebound crown and Falco nabbing assist honours.

Manchester's Elizandra Costa (16.0PPG, 3.9SPG) was also recognised, as was Powell's team mate Louise Fisher (14.7PPG, 8.7RPG).

Forster is automatically placed into this season's All-First team, and is joined by a couple of familiar faces in Christabel Osarobo and Yazmin Edwards.

Osarobo (14.6PPG, 10.3RPG) and Edwards (23.0PPG, 5.3SPG) were both stats monsters this season for the conference winners, taking up worthy spots in the line up.

Felicia Jacobs (11.8PPG, 10.5RPG) was Forster's closest rival for the MVP award and is also selected, as is another CoLA player, Glory Kabia (6.1PPG, 3.1APG, 2.4RPG).

All Conference 2nd Team

Two Manchester Mystics' standouts make the All-Second team in Alejandra Escriva Gay (9.0PPG) and Carina Costa (16.0PPG), alongside Nottingham's Alina Riley (11.2PPG, 3.6APG), who moves up from last year's Most Improved Player award.

Lauren Cooper (9.3PPG, 4.3APG) adds to Charnwood's list of winners, whilst Danielle McNamara (13.3PPG, 13.0RPG) is Sheffield's only selection after their winless campaign.

There's more Copleston love as forward Louisa Gibbins (10.3PPG, 7.8RPG) is selected following last season's U17 Player of the Year award, with CoLA's Violet Stutz (6.7PPG) and Shay Oyewole (7.1PPG) also recognised.

The five is rounded out by JMA's Elia Ando (13.4PPG, 15.0RPG), who was second in the league's rebound charts this year, and Itchen's Florrie Cotterill (9.7PPG).

Defensive Player of the Year

There was a three way tie in the North for Defensive Player of the Year, with the deadlock being split by most first place votes. That gave this year's award to Manchester's Alexandra Hernandez, with Erin Powell and Valerie Cassidy De Falco close behind.

Manchester had the North's top defence despite Charnwood's unbeaten record, allowing just 64.7PPG as Hernandez played a major role.

In the South it was a different story with Copleston's Christabel Osarobo earning a near-unanimous selection after amassing 3.9SPG and 4.9DRPG to make it back-to-back DPOY picks.

Copleston allowed a paltry 41.2PPG on the year and Osarobo's efforts across the defensive end, both on and off the ball, were a big reason why.

Most Improved Player

Manchester's Sara Blake-Smith and Copleston's Yazmin Edwards are recipients of this year's Most Improved Player awards.

Blake-Smith stepped up to aid Manchester's push to second spot in the North, controlling the glass with 8.0RPG to go with 4.0PPG as the young forward continues to build on her ever-expanding skillset.

With Yazmin Edwards jumping into All-First team selection, it is no surprise to see the young guard catching the eye of coaches across the South conference.

Her numbers leap off the page (23.4PPG, 7.0RPG, 5.4SPG), and she achieved significant output this season despite averaging less than 28 minutes per game.

U17 Player of the Year

Awarded to the best Year 12 players from across the league, Nottingham's Samantha Mullock and CoLA's Adaora Dioramma have both been recognised.

Despite playing in her first WEABL campaign, Mullock led the league in rebounding (16.8RPG), also dealing 3.0APG and 1.2BPG, both good for top tens across the league this season.

Adding in 15.3PPG, it's no surprise that Mullock only trailed MVP Erin Powell for overall efficiency this year.

Dioramma looks primed to continue the line of impressive CoLA forwards after her debut season. Following in the foot steps of the likes of Felicia Jacobs and Esther Kursite, plus former MVP winner Isi Ozzy-Momodu, Dioramma played well in 2023/24 to the tune of 7.6PPG, 6.6RPG and a 52.3FG%.

CoLA went 7-3 and claimed the second seed, giving Dioramma a chance to also impress in the post-season as well.

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