BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Lady Tigers basketball team, coming off one of the best seasons in the program’s history, recognized the accomplishments of the team and handed out individual awards at the 2005 Banquet held at the Embassy Suites.
LSU posted a 33-3 overall record, the second most wins in the program’s history, reached the NCAA Final Four for the second straight season and claimed its first Southeastern Conference regular season crown with a perfect 14-0 record.
During the run off success, the Lady Tigers also defeated eight ranked teams and held the No. 1 ranking in the nation for 11 weeks. LSU also shattered the school’s record for attendance in the Maravich Center, averaging 7,317 paid fans per game for the 10th best averaging in the nation. The Lady Tigers recorded four of the top six crowds in history, including a record 15,233 crowd for the Feb. 10 victory over Tennessee.
Individually, first-year head coach Pokey Chatman and her staff handed out the annual team awards at the banquet.
Senior Florence Williams was given the Keia Howell Most Improved Player of the Year. Williams almost double her scoring average and minutes per game during the 2004-05 season and scored a career-high 16 points in LSU’s victory over Georgia in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
Junior Scholanda Hoston was awarded the LaTasha Dorsey Defensive Player of the Year. Hoston led the team with 78 steals, was second with 33 blocked shots and was assigned the opponents leading scorer in almost every game.
Sophomore Hanna Biernacka received the Cornelia Gayden Outstanding Attitude Award. Biernacka, who averaged 7.9 minutes in 19 games, always did what was called upon her to do.
Senior Temeka Johnson was given the Pokey Chatman Leadership Award. Johnson, who was recently drafted by the WNBA’s Washington Mystics with the sixth overall pick, started all 36 games at point guard and averaged 10.4 points and 7.7 assists to lead the team on the court, but she also led the team off the court as a captain.
Ashley Thomas, who suffered a season ending knee injury on Jan. 5 at Rutgers, received the Sue Gunter Courage Award. Thomas, a freshman, played in all 14 games before getting injured, but returned to the bench in uniform for LSU’s post season run to the Final Four.
Freshman Sylvia Fowles was named the Arete Award winner as well as the Maree Jackson Post Player of the Year. The Arete Award goes to the player that demonstrates the most outstanding effort in the weight room. Fowles did just that, but also earned the post player award by scoring 11.8 points, the second highest average on the team, and collecting a team-high 9.0 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game.
Junior Seimone Augustus, the consensus National Player of the Year, received the Joyce Walker Perimeter Player of the Year Award. Augustus led LSU with 20.1 points per game, shot 53.9 percent from the floor and 86.9 percent from the line and grabbed 4.6 rebounds per outing.
Tommy Powell, an associate director at the Cox Communication Academic Center for Student Athletes, was awarded the Lady Tiger Pillar of Achievement Award that goes to the support staff. Powell helped the Lady Tigers to one of the best academic years in program history, including have two players on the 2004-05 team that had already graduated and three more will graduate this August.