STORRS, Conn. - U
niversity of Connecticut junior Maya Moore, has won the 2010 Honda Sports Award in basketball, designating her as the nation's top collegiate female athlete in that sport.
This is the third year in a row that Moore has been nominated for the award. The award is based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 34th year. Moore's win, coming on the heels of being named the NCAA Final Four MVP, marks the eighth time that a University of Connecticut basketball player has been honored with the award.
Past Honda Sports Award winners from the school include Rebecca Lobo and Maya's former teammate Renee Montgomery, who won last year. (See below for list of past winners.)
The Honda Sports Award is given annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, along with automatic nomination for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Moore was voted over three other nominees for the 2010 award, including her teammate, senior Tina Charles. The other two nominees were Kelsey Griffin, a senior at the University of Nebraska and Nnemkadi Ogwumike, a Stanford University sophomore. The candidates were selected by the NCAA Women's Basketball Coaches Association.
""I'm very honored and excited to celebrate winning the Honda Sports Award along with a national championship with my teammates,"" Moore said. ""I thank God for blessing me with the best and most committed coaches and staff in the country and my teammates who give their best everyday.""
Moore, who grew up in Lawrenceville, Georgia, helped her team achieve an NCAA record of 78 wins this year, as well as its sixth undefeated season and second straight NCAA National Championship. She received both the 2010 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and Dayton Regional's Most Outstanding Player award and is a three-time AP First Team All-American. Moore ended this season averaging 18.9 points and 8.3 rebounds, scoring in double figures 34 times. She finished the 2009-10 season with 736 points, the second most points scored in a season by a UConn player only to herself (754 pts in 2008-09). So far in her career, Moore has scored 2168 points, with 963 rebounds and 243 three-pointers. She is also the first junior in the program's history to score over 2000 points.
In addition to her achievements in athletics, Moore is an academic standout. A Sports Marketing and Media major with a 3.85 GPA, she has been honored this year as the Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year, ESPN Academic All-America of the Year, CoSIDA Academic First-Team, 2010 Wade Trophy winner and Wooden finalist.
Previous Honda Sports Award winners from the University of Connecticut for basketball include: Rebecca Lobo (1995), Jennifer Rizzotti (1996), Shea Ralph (2000), Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2003, '04) and Renee Montgomery (2009). Both Lobo and Rizzotti went on to win the Honda-Broderick