By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The MIAA released their all-conference basketball accolades and awards Tuesday.
In women’s basketball, Missouri Western’s Connie Clarke was named the Defensive Player of the Year in the MIAA. Clarke was the only player in the leagueto total over 200 defensive rebounds. Her 8.6 rebounds per game ranked third in the MIAA while her 83 steals on the season tied for the league high.
Offensively, Clarke's 14.2 points per game ranked sixth in the league. She finished the regular season with the second-best shooting percentage at52.4 percent. Elsewhere, Missouri Western’s Brionna Budgets was named first-team all-MIAA, while Johnni Gonzalez and Trinity Knapp were named honorable mention.
Clarke was named second-team all-MIAA for a second straight season as well.
On the men’s side, Northwest Missouri State swept all of the major awards, with St. Joseph native Diego Bernard earning Defensive Player and Player of the Year accolades.
Bennett Stirtz was named Freshman of the Year, and Ben McCollum is MIAA Coach of the Year for the eighth time in his career.
Junior Wes Dreamer was also named as a second-team honoree for the Bearcats. Stirtz, on top of his freshman of the year title, was also named all-MIAA second team in his first year at Northwest.
Missouri Western's Will Eames and Julius Dixon earned all-MIAA honorable mention honors Tuesday. Eames has now earned all-conference honors three times in his career.