Today, the Western Athletic Conference announced its women’s basketball postseason honors, rewarding athletes for their play throughout the conference season as voted on by the WAC’s eight head coaches. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley junior guard Shawnte’ Goff was named the WAC Player of the Year and selected to the All-WAC First Team and All-Defensive Team and junior forward Anushka Maldonado was named to the All-Newcomer team for their conference play.
Goff led the WAC in scoring, averaging 16.1 points per game while also leading the conference in minutes per game at 35.9 per contest. She scored 20 points or more six times in WAC play and a total of nine times throughout the entire season. She finished WAC conference play by scoring 20 points and leading the Vaqueros to a victory against the New Mexico State University Aggies last Saturday.
Goff uses a well-rounded game consisting of drives to the basket and range from three, while locking down on the defensive end of the court. In addition to leading the team in scoring and minutes, she also ranked among conference leaders in free throw shooting at .794 percent; three-pointers made per game, 1.9; assists, 3.3; defensive rebounding, 5.4; steals,1.4; and blocks per game,0.6.
On the full season Goff is averaging 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game and has led UTRGV in scoring and assists in 17 and 18 games. She is already the program’s record holder in field goals made (1,280) and ranks second all-time in scoring (1,324).
She wasn’t the only Vaquero to earn postseason honors.
Maldonado, a junior transfer from Odessa College, was named to the All-Newcomer team for her play during the WAC season, finishing fifth in WAC points per game at 12.6, fifth in rebounds at 6.9 per game and ranking fourth in blocks per game with 1.2. She also finished third in free throw shooting (.813) and among conference leaders in a number of categories, including defensive rebounding (5.1), field goal percentage (.449), three-point shooting (.340), steals (1.5), and offensive rebounding (1.8).
Maldonado scored career high 28-points on Jan. 14 in an all-around effort at Chicago State University, shooting 10-12 field goals, 4-of-5 from behind the three-point line to go along with nine rebounds and three steals.
Goff and Maldonado will lead the second seeded UTRGV Vaqueros into the WAC Tournament this Wednesday when they take on seventh-seeded Chicago State in the quarterfinals at 6:30 p.m. CT (4:30 p.m. PT).
