Senior guard Bianca Smith drives to the basket during the first half of CU's game against Texas A&M on Feb. 27 in the Coors Events Center. Smith set the record for career three pointers in the second half, passing Shelley Sheetz with 252. (CU Independent file/Phil McMichael)
The regular season is over, but two Colorado women’s basketball players are still receiving accolades.
Results of a conference where Big 12 coaches voted to honor senior guard Bianca Smith and junior guard/forward Brittany Spears were released Monday.
Smith was named the 2010 Big 12 Conference Women’s Basketball Sixth Man Award winner, and Spears received honorable mention to the All-Big 12 team.
Smith has come off the bench to be a huge asset to the Buffaloes. She is the first CU player to earn the Big 12’s Sixth Man Award. She is also the first to win a solo Big 12 postseason honor.
Smith, a Missouri City, Texas native, averages 13.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, and her outside game has helped put her on top. She leads the conference with 81 3-pointers and has the Colorado all-time record of 256 treys (which also puts her ninth on the Big 12’s all-time list) out of an attempted 698.
Spears received honorable mention recognition for the second time—the first was during her 2008 freshman season. She joins Linda Lappe (1999 and 2003) to become the second Colorado player to be given Big 12 honorable mention twice.
Junior Sociology major Brittany Spears (22) pushes down the court against Iowa State's Kelsey Bolte during the CU versus Iowa State basketball game in Coor's Events Center on Jan. 16, 2009. (CU Independent file/Stephanie Davis)
The California transplant is at the top of her game and the Big 12 standings. She averages 17.5 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals per game. Spears ranks fourth in the league in scoring, steals and defensive rebounds, and fifth in overall rebounds and free-throw percentage.
Spears is the sixth player in team history to reach 1,500 points and 700 rebounds in her career and the fourth to make 500 points in two different seasons.
Smith, Spears and the rest of the Buffaloes head to the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. to play No. 6 seed Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at Marlee.horn@colorado.edu.
