Bella and Stella earn AP All-America Honorable Mention
Two of the best women’s basketball players to ever step foot in Mercer County have now earned All-America recognition.
Rider’s Stella Johnson and Princeton’s Bella Alarie were given Honorable Mention by the Associated Press when it named its All-America teams on Thursday.
Johnson, the two-time MAAC Player of the Year, led the nation in scoring at 24.8 points per game. She also averaged 7.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.8 steals as the Broncs went 26-4 and won the MAAC regular-season title.
The Denville native finished her career with 2,167 points, which ranks fifth all-time in the MAAC.
Johnson scored 30 or more points seven times this season, including a MAAC Tournament record 37 in her final game before the remainder of the season was canceled. She is the only women’s player in Rider history to reach the 2,000-point milestone and is one of four players in school history to reach that number, joining Jason Thompson, Jerry Johnson and Darrick Suber. Johnson needed 53 more points to break Suber’s school record of 2,219.
Alarie became just the third player in Ivy League history to win the conference’s Player of the Year award three times after she averaged 17.5 points and 8.6 rebounds.
A 6-foot-4 senior from Bethesda, Md., Alarie completed her career as Princeton’s all-time leading scorer with 1,703 points. She won Ivy League Player of the Week an astounding 20 times during her four seasons on Old Nassau and compiled a programrecord 40 double-doubles. Her career scoring total trails only the legend Bill Bradley (2,503) in the school’s basketball history.
The Tigers won yet another Ivy title with a 26-1 overall record and 14-0 mark in the league. They won their 14 conference games by an average of 25.9 points and finished the season on a 22-game winning streak to earn a final ranking of No. 22 in the AP poll.
Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon, who will be named National Player of the Year on Monday, was the only unanimous selection to the First Team with 30 out of 30 possible votes. Ionescu averaged 17.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds as she shattered the NCAA career triple-double mark and became the first player in college history to have 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists.
The other First Team picks were Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard, Oregon’s Ruthy Hebard, Baylor’s Lauren Cox and UConn’s Megan Walker.