Oct. 18, 2012
WASHINGTON - For the third-consecutive year, senior shooting guard Sugar Rodgers (Suffolk, Va./King's Fork) was a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team at the conference's annual women's basketball media day held at the New York Athletic Club in New York City on Thursday. Additionally, the Hoyas were picked to finish eighth in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll receiving 104 points.
Rodgers was one of 11 players named Preseason All-BIG EAST. She joined four players as unanimous selections to the All-BIG EAST team. Voting for both the preseason awards and the coaches' poll was performed by the league's 15 head coaches.
Last year, the shooting guard led the Hoyas to a solid season with a record of 23-9 and a mark of 11-5 in BIG EAST play. Georgetown spent the entire season in the national rankings moving as high as No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 11 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll. GU finished the season with an RPI of 26, as well as being ranked 18th and 17th on the AP and the ESPN/USA Today Polls, respectively.
The Blue & Gray finished the regular season tied for fourth in the BIG EAST. Georgetown was awarded an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament receiving the five seed for the third-consecutive year. The Hoyas downed No. 12 Fresno State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 4 Georgia Tech in the second round.
Rodgers is the only player in Georgetown history to earn First Team All-BIG EAST three times in her career and was a unanimous decision the past two years. She led the Hoyas in points in 25 of 32 games this past season with a high of 39 points in the win over Dartmouth University at the Blue Sky Classic.
She averaged 18.5 ppg, to lead the BIG EAST during the regular season, 5.4 rpg to rank third on the team and had a squad-high 71 steals. Rodgers also shot a team-high 81.9 percent from the free throw line and ranked second in assists with 54.
Rodgers earned three BIG EAST Player of the Week honors, tying the most in the conference, and had seven nods to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll. She was also named to a number of watch lists for national awards including the Naismith Award, the Wooden Award and the WBCA's "Wade Watch" List.
She was an honorable mention WBCA All-American and an AP All-American for the third-consecutive season.
In her career, Rodgers holds the record for career 3-pointers, points in a season, 3-pointers in a season and ranks in a number of additional categories. She is also second on Georgetown's all-time scoring list.
Rodgers was named to the WBCA "Wade Watch" List earlier this fall marking her third consecutive year on the list.
The Hoyas were selected to finish eighth with 104 points. Georgetown's highest preseason ranking was two years ago when the Hoyas were selected to finish third in the highly-competitive league.
Connecticut, the 2012 BIG EAST Championship tournament winner, was picked to win the 2012-13 BIG EAST women's basketball regular-season title. The Huskies, who received 12 first-place votes, edged last year's regular-season champion, Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish received three first-place votes and were picked to finish second. Louisville was selected to finish third, with St. John's picked fourth and Rutgers rounding out the top five. DePaul was slotted sixth, while Syracuse and Georgetown were separated by only one point in seventh and eighth, respectively. The Hoyas were followed by USF, Villanova and Marquette in ninth, 10th and 11th. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall and Providence followed the Golden Eagles, with the Panthers and Pirates tied for 13th.
Georgetown will open the season on November 9 at McDonough Arena against Sacred Heart in the first round of the Preseason WNIT.
