ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (Mar. 11, 2024) – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), today announced its 2023-24 Women’s Basketball Major Awards, as voted on by the league’s 11 head coaches.
Nationally ranked Fairfield University headlined major awards, claiming three out of the five postseason honors. Janelle Brown highlighted the winners being named MAAC Player of the Year; freshman Meghan Andersen was unanimously selected as the MAAC Rookie of the Year; Carly Thibault-DuDonis was chosen by her peers as the unanimous MAAC Coach of the Year. Also receiving postseason hardware was Siena College’s Elisa Mevius, the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year and Canisius University’s Athina Lexa, the MAAC Sixth Player of the Year.
A unanimous All-MAAC First Team choice, Brown was the floor general for the No. 25 nationally ranked Stags this season, leading to her selection as the MAAC Player of the Year. A senior guard from Middle Island, NY, she appeared and started in all 29 games and averaged 13.3 points 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 2.5 steals. Brown’s scoring average ranked eighth, her assists were fifth, and her steals ranked third on the MAAC leaderboard. She was one of the MAAC’s most efficient shooters, making .584 percent of her shot attempts and .474 percent of her three-pointers, both of which led the league. Moreover, she was eighth in assist to turnover ratio and her 72 total steals were also third in the MAAC. Brown becomes the second MAAC Player of the Year from Fairfield over the past three seasons, joining her former teammate, Lou Lopez-Senechal, who won the award in 2021-22.
Andersen dominated postseason awards this season, earning all three of her honors unanimously. In addition to receiving all possible votes as the MAAC Rookie of the Year, she was also a unanimous MAAC First Team choice and unanimous MAAC All-Rookie selection. The Wantagh, NY native postied 15.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game in her first season at Fairfield. She ranked second in the league in points, 17
th in rebounds, third in blocks, and 12
th in steals. Andersen connected on .528 percent of her field goals and .372 percent of her three-pointers, good for second and seventh in the conference, respectively. She won a MAAC-leading 11 Rookie of the Week awards and two MAAC Player of the Week honors, totaling a conference-most 13 weekly awards, which led both women and men in 2023-24. The 11 Rookie of the Week honors also tied for the second-most in conference history. On the national scene, Andersen was recognized as one of just 40 selections to the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) National Player of the Year and she was also the only freshman ever to be named a Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Semifinalist.
In only her second season at the helm of the Fairfield Stags, Thibault-DuDonis was unanimously named MAAC Coach of the Year. Guiding the No. 25 nationally ranked squad, her Stags produced a historic regular season, going a perfect 20-0 in conference play, leading to the MAAC Regular Season Championship, and posting an unprecedented 28-1 overall mark. Her unit became the second MAAC team ever to achieve a 20-0 conference mark and the eighth to go undefeated in conference play. The 20 league wins were the most conference wins by any team in the nation and the team’s 26 game winning streak is the second-longest active streak in the country. They also become just the second MAAC squad ever to finish a regular season with just one loss, dating back to the 1988-89 La Salle squad. Thibault-DuDonis’ Stags ranked first in the MAAC in scoring offense, scoring defense, scoring margin, winning percentage, made three-pointers, assists, and rebound margin. She also becomes the second MAAC Coach of the Year from Fairfield over the past three seasons, joining former head coach Joe Frager, the 2021-22 MAAC Coach of the Year.
The MAAC individual single-season record holder for steals, Mevius secured the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year award after recording 121 steals and a 4.3 steals per game average defensively. She was the league leader and ranked second in the nation in both total steals and steals per game. Additionally, Mevius scored 11.9 points, distributed 5.0 assists, and grabbed 6.6 rebounds. Her assists average and assists total (140) each led the MAAC, while her scoring average was 13
th among the league leaders, her rebounds were 12
th, and her .463 field goal percentage was eighth. Mevius was the only player in the MAAC to record a triple-double on the year after her 16 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists performance against Rider this past week. An All-MAAC First Team selection this year, she was also the 2022-23 MAAC Rookie of the Year and claimed spots on the All-MAAC Third Team and MAAC All-Rookie Team last season.
Picking up the MAAC Sixth Player of the Year trophy was Lexa from Canisius. A junior guard from Greece, she appeared in all 29 games, 20 in reserve, for the Golden Griffins, averaging 11.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists. Lexa ranked 15
th in the MAAC in points, 15
th in field goal percentage, third in three-point field goal percentage, and 13
th in three-point field goals per game.
The 2023-24 campaign culminates with the 2024 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships from March 12-16 at Atlantic City's Historic Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall for the fifth consecutive year dating back to 2020. For all information regarding the 2024 Hercules Tires MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, please visit
MAACSports.com/basketball and by following @MAACHoops and #MAACHoops on Twitter.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 43rd year of competition during the 2023-24 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius University, Fairfield University, Iona University, Manhattan College, Marist College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College. Merrimack College and Sacred Heart University will join the MAAC as full members in the 2024-25 academic year, expanding the conference to 13 institutions.
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