Utes share top honors; four others recognized

Kim Smith, Shona Thorburn and Lana Sitterud of the Utah women's basketball team collected player-of-the-year honors and were joined by a BYU foursome as the Mountain West Conference announced its 2005 all-conference selections Monday.

Representing the co-league champion Utes, Smith and Thorburn were named MWC co-players of the year — the third consecutive such honor for Smith — while Sitterud was tabbed as the league's defensive player of the year.

Smith led the league in rebounding (8.9 a game) and field-goal percentage (53.7) and was second in scoring (18.6 points per game) in 14 MWC games. With a season still to go in her collegiate career, Smith is fifth all-time in Mountain West career points, needing just 525 to eclipse BYU's Erin Thorn for the top spot (2,061).

Thorburn led the league in scoring average (19.4), assists (6.43) and steals (2.79) in conference games. The junior point guard passed the 1,000-point career scoring plateau this season and is third all-time in the MWC in assists — and like Smith will be back for next season.

Utah coach Elaine Elliott nominated both Smith and Thorburn as player-of-the-year candidates, not thinking — or worried — about the two splitting the balloting among conference coaches and allowing another player to sneak in and snatch the top award.

"I put them both up because they deserved it and I didn't do it to 'play the game,' " Elliott said.

The two topped the five-member all-MWC selection — Smith's third such honor and Thorburn's first after being a second-team selection the previous two seasons.

Joining the two Utes on the all-MWC first team is BYU senior point guard Julie Sullivan, a second-team honoree last season who averaged 12.7 points and 3.64 assists a game while leading the Cougars with 18 double-digit scoring games this season.

"She's had to do a lot of different things this year for us to be successful," said BYU coach Jeff Judkins of her scoring, assists, leadership and defensive assignments.

Sitterud finished third in the league in steals (2.24 a game) and was second in 3-point percentage (41) and 3-pointers made (2.4 a game). The Utes' sole senior was also a third-team all-conference selection.

Also earning third-team all-conference selections were a pair of BYU senior post players — Danielle Cheesman and Kristen Kozlowski — with Cougar teammate Ambrosia Anderson named honorable mention, the only instate player on that list.

2004-05 ALL-MWC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM