Women’s Basketball: Jones, Augustus honored

Women’s Basketball: Jones, Augustus honored

BATON ROUGE – University of Louisiana junior Yolanda Jones, the catalyst in the Ragin’ Cajuns’ second straight winning season and the Newcomer of the Year in the Sun Belt Conference, has added the same state honor to her resume.
The 6-foot-1 product of Lumberton, N.C., and Trinity Valley Junior College was named the Newcomer of the Year on the All-Louisiana Team and was a first-team selection on that squad announced Friday by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

LSU guard Seimone Augustus and Tiger coach Pokey Chatman grabbed the other top honors in headlining the team selected by a statewide media panel.

The other top honors went to New Orleans’ Jada Frazier and La. Tech’s Eboni Mangum, named co-winners of the Freshman of the Year award.
Augustus, a 6-1 senior for the Lady Tigers, earned the Louisiana Player of the Year honor for the third straight year, while Chatman, a second-year head coach at LSU, was named Louisiana Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

Augustus and Jones were joined on the five-member first team by LSU’s Sylvia Fowles and Louisiana Tech’s Tasha Williams and Aarica Ray-Boyd.

Southern’s Rolanda Monroe, the SWAC Player of the Year, headed up the second-team. She was joined by Louisiana Tech’s Ty Moore, Tulane’s Ashley Langford, LSU’s Scholanda Hoston, Grambling State’s Juleen Smith and LSU-Shreveport’s Jessica Kelly.

Jones averaged 18.1 points and 10.9 rebounds for the Cajuns and led the squad to an 18-10 overall record. UL, knocked out of the Sun Belt Tournament in the quarterfinals, has 40 wins in two consecutive seasons for the first time since 1983-84.

Jones finishd with 16 double-doubles during the year and led the Sun Belt in rebounding. She also finished with the ninth-highest single-season point total in Cajun history with 508 points in her junior season. She had 21 points and 12 rebounds in the conference tournament loss to Middle Tennessee.

Augustus, the National Player of the Year by the Associated Press and the recipient of the Wade Trophy, the Naismith Trophy and the John R. Wooden Award, led the nation in scoring with 22.7 points per game.

Chatman guided LSU to a 31-4 overall record, a second straight Southeastern Conference regular season title and a third straight NCAA Final Four appearance.

Frazier posted 9.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for the Privateers, while Mangum scored 7.5 points and grabbed 2.6 boards per game for the Lady Techsters.

All-Louisiana Women’s Basketball Team

Selected by the La. Sports Writers Association

First Team

Seimone Augustus, LSU; Sylvia Fowles, LSU; Tasha Williams, Louisiana Tech; Yolanda Jones, Louisiana; Aarica Ray-Boyd, Louisiana Tech.

Second Team

Rolanda Monroe, Southern; Ty Moore, Louisiana Tech; Ashley Langford, Tulane; Scholanda Hoston, LSU; Juleen Smith, Grambling State; Jessica Kelly, LSU-Shreveport.

Honorable Mention

Jennifer Sands, Tulane; Brenita Williams, Southeastern Louisiana; LaJeanna Howard, UL Monroe; Sheronda Bell, Northwestern State; Lacey Cormier, Grambling State; Fredrieka Lewis, Southern; Jami Montagnino, Tulane; Jada Frazier, New Orleans; Eboni Mangum, Louisiana Tech; Le’Della English, New Orleans; Holli Wilkins, Centenary; Tina Wilson, Southeastern Louisiana.

Player of the Year – Seimone Augustus, LSU

Coach of the Year – Pokey Chatman, LSU

Newcomer of the Year – Yolanda Jones, Louisiana

Co-Freshmen of the Year – Jada Frazier, New Orleans/Eboni Mangum, Louisiana Tech

Originally published April 15, 2006