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Mar. 13– Senior co-captains, conference co-players of the year and co-all-American candidates Amanda Behnke and Katie LaViolette have added another "co" to their senior season full of accolades, as they were voted onto the 2008 Daktronics NCAA Division II Women's Basketball All-North Central Region First Team. The five player team is voted on by the Sports Information Directors from the North Central Region institutions (RMAC, NSIC, NCC).
The Golden Bear dynamic duo is joined by North Dakota's Ashley Langen, a unanimous selection, South Dakota's Jeana Hoffman and Amy Mathis of Nebraska-Kearney.
Langen and Jeana Hoffman were NCC Co-Players of the Year while Mathis was the RMAC Player of the Year.
Behnke receives first team honors for the second consecutive season while LaViolette was bumped up after being a second team selection a year ago.
2008 Daktronics All-North Central Region
First Team
Ashley Langen, University of North Dakota (Sr., C, 6‐2, Kennedy, Minn.)
Amanda Behnke, Concordia‐St. Paul (Sr., C, 6‐2, Eagan, Minn.)
Jeana Hoffman, South Dakota (Sr. G, 5‐8, Mitchell, S.D.)
Amy Mathis, Nebraska-Kearney (Sr., F, 6‐0, Omaha, Neb.)
Katie LaViolette, Concordia‐St. Paul (Sr., PG, 5‐9, Manitowoc, Wis.)
Second Team
Kierah Kimbrough, North Dakota (Jr. F, 6‐0, Greenbush, Minn.)
Allison Rosel, Fort Lewis (So. F, 5‐11, Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Noelle Hall, Northern State (Sr., C, 6‐2, Altura, Minn.)
Heather Johnson, Minnesota State (Jr., G, 5‐8, Janesville, Minn.)
Amy Lawson, Bemidji State (Sr., PG, 5‐4, Spencer, Iowa) The point guard-center combination has proved to be one of the best in all of NCAA Division II, as Behnke took the NSIC Scoring Title, averaging 16.6 ppg in 18 league games while LaViolette repeated with the league assist title with 149, just 10 off of her NSIC single-season record set last year.
Behnke has been dominant in the low post, with 10 double-doubles, 11 games with 20 or more points, 14 games with 10 or more rebounds and five performances with 20 points and 10 rebounds. She finished second in the league in rebounding, beating last year's average with 8.6 rpg while posting 28 blocks in 30 games. She is currently 8th on the all-time scoring list at CU in just three seasons, and is only 59 points shy of second place. Her 716 career rebounds with the Golden Bears is second in the Division II-era, 26 behind the leader, Lisa Harfield.
LaViolette, meanwhile, is busy etching her name in the NCAA Division II record books, with 767 career assists, ranking 10th in D-II history and her 6.39 career assist/game average is 14th all-time. Last year, she dished out 297 assists, the fourth-most in a single season in D-II history, while she has nearly achieved the same pace this year with 254 in two less games. Her 8.5 average and 254 assists are both second in the nation this year, and she leads the nation in assist-turnover ratio at 3.34.
Not only can LaViolette pass, but she is also averaging 12.1 points, has six double-doubles (one double-double was points/rebounds), she has 10 double-digit assist games and has scored at least 10 points 18 times with three 20-plus point games including a 25 point, nine assists and nine rebound effort at Upper Iowa in which she set two school records by going 17-18 at the foul line (free throws made and attempted).
Behnke and LaViolette will advance to the Daktronics all-America ballot along with the first team selections from the other seven all-regions.
The duo has already been selected as finalists for the State Farm/WBCA All-America Team. They are two of five finalists from the North Central Region. In all, 40 players are selected to be considered for the All-America team, five from each of the eight regions.
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