Editor’s note: During the 2015-2016 Big Sky Conference basketball season, Skyline Sports attended 30 Big Sky contests, including 28 games at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. With the help of live streaming, we were able to watch every team in the league, men’s and women’s, live at least twice with the exception of the Portland State women. Below are Skyline Sports choices for the major Big Sky awards and the top 15 players each for the men’s and women’s leagues.
Most Valuable Player — Kayleigh Valley, Montana, junior — Montana is perennially at the top of the league (UM has claimed 24 conference titles under Robin Selvig). This year, the Lady Griz are toward the middle of the pack but Valley’s production has been undeniable. With four more points, she will become just the third Montana player to score 600 in a single season, joining Shannon Cate and Mandy Morales, two of UM’s all-time best. Her 21.3 points per game will be the second-best scoring average in school history. Valey’s scoring average bumps to 23.5 points per game in conference play, the best in the Big Sky, and Valley averaged nearly 25 points per game with McCalle Feller on the bench for three games with an injury. Earlier this season, Valley became the 32nd Lady Griz to surpass 1,000 pionts for her career. She has 1,124 points and counting, tied for 23rd in school history.
Defensive Player of the Year – Adella Randle-El, Sacramento State, senior — Sacramento State employs a full-court swarming press and Randle-El is the primary stinger. The do-it-all guard is the only player in the league with more than 100 steals and she is averaging nearly five steals per game in conference play for a Sac State squad that averages nearly 15 thefts per contest.
Newcomer of the Year — Riley Nordgaard, Montana State, junior — Nordgaard’s energy and tempo-setting competitiveness has been a different maker for the league’s top team. The Augustana transfer sat out last season because of NCAA rules. She is a candidate for Defensive MVP as well, averaging nearly three steals per game during conference play. Her 7.6 rebounds per game during conference play is fifth in the league and the best on the Bobcats. She tips in 11.1 points per game for the league’s most balanced offense.
Top Reserve — Peyton Ferris, Montana State, junior — Ferris could be in the argument for MVP if she played more minutes and still might be. The Twin Bridges product has become one of the league’s best one-on-one scorers. She is averaging 17 points per game and her 58.1 percent shooting in league play tops the conference. Ferris, the winner of the league’s inaugural Top Reserve, also chips in 5.7 rebounds per game despite playing only 20 minutes an outing.
Freshman of the Year — Alyssa Rader, Northern Arizona — The 6-foot-2 center was ranked one of the top 150 recruits in the country coming out of Horizon High in Thornton, Colorado and she’s proven it with the rebuilding Lumberjacks this winter. Rader is the only freshman in the top 10 in the Big Sky in scoring (13.3 points per game) and her 8.2 rebounds are fourth in the league.
Coach of the Year — Tricia Binford, Montana State — Binford has consistently produced competitive teams that could not quite get over the hump in her first decade at Montana State. As she begins the second decade, her ability to get her players to buy into roles and the solid production she gets from her top seven night in and night out, bode well for future success. Much has been made of the addition of NBA Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton’ to Binford’s staff. While having the NBA’s all-time leader in assists and steals can’t hurt player development, Binford deserves credit for being open-minded and seeking Stockton to add to the program as MSU, a team picked to finish sixth in the preseason Big Sky polls, pursues it’s first ever outright conference crown.
Big Sky Conference First-team
C — Jasmine Hommes, Montana State, senior — Hommes has been a model of consistency during her three years as a starter and her senior year has been much the same. The smooth-shooting post is hitting 48.4 percent of her shots from the floor and is averaging 15.5 points per game for an MSU offense that consistently puts three players in double figures.
F — Kayleigh Valley, Montana, junior
F — Peyton Ferris, Montana State, junior
G — Hayley Hodgins, Eastern Washington, senior — The best player on one of the league’s best teams has been the Big Sky’s most lethal scorer. She has scored more than 20 points on 14 different occasions, more than 25 seven different times and three games of more than 30. Hodgins has three of the five best scoring games this season and her 21.2 points per game are second to Valley in the league.
G — Adella Randle-El, Sacramento State, senior — Randle-El fills the stat sheet with more than steals. She is averaging 18.1 points per game in league play (third in the league) and she’s chipping in 6.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists, each top-10 totals in the Big Sky.
Big Sky second-team
C — Anna Policiccihio, Idaho State, senior — Idaho State has struggled this season but defense has not been a problem and Policicchio is the lynchpin on the inside. She has scored in double figures frequently but it has been her ability to control the paint that gives her the second-team nod. Policicchio leads the league with 2.6 blocks per game as ISU leads the conference in scoring defense, allowing just 61 points per outing.
F — Riley Nordgaard, Montana State, junior — Nordgaard not only sets the tone with her energy but can also knock down outside shots. She’s shooting a Big Sky-best 44.4 percent from beyond the arc. Nordgaard was in the running for Defensive Player of the Year as well.
F — Mia Loyd, North Dakota, senior — UND started slow. Since shifting Loyd back to the power forward spot, the Fighting Hawks have won 13 out of 15, including a huge win over Montana on Wednesday to take sole possession of fourth place with one game to play and a win over Montana State on Friday to sew up the four-seed. Loyd, the preseason Big Sky MVP, is averaging 12.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game during her season year.
G — Christina Salvatore, Idaho, senior — Salvatore has stuffed the stat sheet for one of the league’s most balanced teams. This season, the senior is averaging 13 points, seven rebounds and 4.2 assists as Idaho has posted a 13-4 record in league play.
G — Delaney Hodgins, Eastern Washington, sophomore — Last season’s Freshman of the Year has avoided a sophomore slump, instead scoring in double figures in all but one of EWU’s 17 conference games. Hayley’s 6-foot younger sister has scored in double figures 27 times this season and her 15.2 points per game are fifth in the league. She’s also proven to be a capable rebounder, averaging 7.0 rebounds per game, 11th in the Big Sky.
Big Sky third-team
C — Alycia Sims, Montana, junior — Along with Randle-El, Policicchio and Nordgaard, Sims is among the league’s elite defenders, particularly in the post. She is also arguably the Big Sky’s best rebounder as well; her 9.3 rebounds per game are second in the league. Since beginning of February, the Stevensville product has cranked up her offensive production. Over Montana’s last eight games, seven of them wins, Sims is averaging 15.6 points per game.
F — Cici West, Portland State, junior — Despite her status as a 5-foot-10 sophomore, West is the only player in the Big Sky averaging a double-double. She is chipping in 10.2 points and 10.0 rebounds for a Vikings squad that has otherwise struggled.
G — McCalle Feller, Montana, senior — If not for an ankle injury that cost her three full games and part of a fourth, Feller would’ve shattered Montana’s single-season record for 3-pointers made. Even with the injury, the Lewistown product still has the mark in her sites. She enters Friday’s game at Northern Colorado with 68 made triples, just four away from tying Sonya Rogers’ school record. The versatile athlete is one of the league’s toughest matchups with her quick trigger and ability to shoot from anywhere on the floor. Her 16.7 points per game is the third-best average in the league.
G — Deeshyra Thomas, Weber State, junior — Since leading scorer Regina Okoye went down with an injury six games in to Big Sky play, Thomas has shouldered the scoring load. Her 16.8 points per game during conference play are fourth in the league. She does it by getting to the rim with authority. She is shooting 48 percent from the floor and has shot just 39 3-pointers in league play.
G — Lindsay Stockton, Montana State, senior — Stockton’s shooting numbers are pedestrian — she is MSU’s fourth-leading scorer and is shooting just 37 percent in league play, 26.1 percent from beyond the arc — but she is a consummate point guard and perhaps the league’s most competitive player. She seems to rise to the occasion, particularly defensively and in transition, as well as any point guard. She is averaging 8.5 points, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals for the Bobcats and, more importantly, is the vocal leader of the league’s best team.
Honorable mention
G — Brianna Burgos, Sacramento State, junior
G — Brittney Dunbar, Weber State, senior
G — Hannah Caudill, Montana State, sophomore
G — Savannah Scott, Northern Colorado, sophomore
F — Ashli Payne, Eastern Washington, junior
F — Geraldine McCorkell, Idaho, sophomore
C — Alyssa Rader, Northern Arizona, freshman
