BYU’s Sara Hamson Earns Second WCC Defensive Player Of The Year Award

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – BYU Women’s Basketball center Sara Hamson has been a dominant force on the defensive end for the Cougars. Her dominance was rewarded on Tuesday as she was named the WCC Defensive Player of the Year.

The 6-7 junior center leads Women’s College Basketball this season in blocked shots with 133 total and is averaging an eye-popping 4.75 per game.

Presenting the All-WCC teams and major award winners from @ZagWBB, @byuwbb, @PortlandWBB, and @USDwbb! #WCChoops pic.twitter.com/XTY5iQjBtL

— WCC Basketball (@WCChoops) March 3, 2020

This is the second time in Hamson’s career that she has been named the West Coast Conference’s top defensive player. The first coming two years ago in her freshman season where she had 112 blocks.

Hamson helped lead BYU to the third-seed in the WCC Tournament this week in Las Vegas with a 13-5 record.

A Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist, Hamson increased her defensive presence in conference play with an average of 5.3 blocks per game which was good for 95 blocks in 18 games played. She also pulled down 5.8 defensive rebounds per game in conference play en route to becoming just the fourth student-athlete in conference history to win the Defensive Player of the Year honor twice in a career.

Hamson has a total of 332 blocks in her three years at BYU and is 36 blocks away from cracking the Top 25 career shot blockers in NCAA Women’s basketball history.

Along with being named WCC Defensive Player of the Year, Hamson also appeared on the WCC All-Conference 2nd Team.

Two BYU Women’s Basketball Players Named To All-WCC First Team

All-WCC teams and individual awards are voted on by the 10 coaches in the conference. The league’s coaches were impressed with two of Jeff Judkins’ players by naming them to the All-WCC First Team.

AWARD SZN 🏆
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Congrats to our conference award winners:@HamsonSara: Defensive Player of the Year, All-WCC 2nd Team@brenna_chase1: All-WCC 1st Team@paisleynikelle: All-WCC 1st Team
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀#GoCougs #BYUWBB pic.twitter.com/E8qdOONorZ

— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) March 3, 2020

Senior guard Brenna Chase Drollinger and junior backcourt mate Paisley Johnson were part of the 10-woman team highlighting the best in the WCC.

Drollinger is making her third appearance as an All-WCC First Team selection and for Johnson, it’s her first time making the First Team.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.