For Kelly, it marks the third straight season in which she has been a first-team honoree. A candidate for the WBCA Wade Trophy, the Naismith Award and the John R. Wooden All-America team, she enters this week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament ranked second in the nation in scoring at 23.9 points per game, and fourth in the country with a .616 field-goal percentage. She has scored in double figures in all 27 games so far this season, tallying 646 points through the regular season — the fourth-highest single-season total in Lady Topper history. Kelly set a WKU record earlier in the season when she scored over 20 points in nine straight games, and she has dropped in over 30 points on four occasions this season. She became just the second player in Sun Belt history to earn league player-of-the-week honors four times in a season, and was joined on the all-SBC first team by league Player-of-the-Year Chrissy Givens and Amber Holt of Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State’s Adrianne Davie and Louisiana-Lafayette’s Yolanda Jones.
Duck earned all-league honors for the first time in her career after averaging 12.5 points per game and ranking as WKU’s second leading scorer behind Kelly. Despite missing the last three games of the regular season due to injury, she ranks among the Sun Belt leaders in both scoring and field-goal percentage (.498), while posting double-figure point totals in 17 games this season. Duck averaged 12.3 points per game in Sun Belt Conference action, reaching double figures in 10 league games. She also ranks among the team leaders in blocked shots (13) and steals (32).
The Lady Toppers finished the regular season with a 20-7 record, and posted a 14-4 league mark to earn the third seed in the conference tournament. WKU will open its run for a ninth Sun Belt Tournament title on Saturday in the quarterfinals when it meets either Arkansas State or Louisiana-Monroe at 9 p.m. (CST) at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La.
