Clayton State’s Woodard, Cox earn Peach Belt Conference postseason honors for women’s basketball

2012 Women's Basketball All-Peach Belt Conference
AUGUSTA, Ga. – February 28, 2012 – With the Peach Belt Conference Tournament on the horizon, the Clayton State Laker women's basketball team picked up numerous postseason awards from the Peach Belt Conference on Tuesday.

Forward Tanisha Woodard was selected both Peach Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year and first team All-Peach Belt Conference for a second straight season, while Laker head coach Dennis Cox was honored as the Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year for a second straight season. In addition, Clayton State guard Brittany Hall was selected second team All-Peach Belt Conference and guard Drameka Griggs was a third team selection.

Woodard, a 5-foot-10 senior from Rome, Ga., followed up a stellar junior season by leading the Peach Belt Conference in both steals and assists, while ranking fourth in blocked shots and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio. She led the conference in steals for a second straight season and is also ranked 10^th in the nation in steals and 21^st in assists.

Woodard set the Peach Belt Conference career record for steals with 408. That eclipses the old mark of 407, held by former Columbus State standout LaShawn Mincey from 1997-2001. In addition, she also recorded just the third triple-double in the history of Peach Belt Conference women's basketball with 13 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds on Saturday against Georgia College.

Offensively, Woodard is averaging 11.6 points and 5.9 rebounds a game, while dishing out 148 assists heading into this weekend's Peach Belt Conference Tournament. She scored in double-figures in 20 games this season, scoring a season high 18 points against Georgia Southwestern on 5-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.

Woodard became the seventh player in Clayton State women's basketball history to eclipse 1,000 career points this season, and is now ranked second all-time with 1,324 points. She also set the Laker single-game record for assists and the career marks for assists, blocked shots, field goal attempts and games played.

Hall, a 5-9 senior from Smyrna, Ga., earns All-Conference honors for the first time in her career. A two-year starter and three-year team captain, Hall is averaging 10.3 points, 3.4 assists and 2.9 rebounds a game this season. She has scored in double-figures in 15 games this season with a season-high 20 points against Montevallo.

Hall is ranked 10^th in the Peach Belt Conference in steals, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio. Th is season, she set the Clayton State career record for 3-point field goals and became the eighth player at Clayton State to eclipse 1,000 career points. Hall is now fifth all-time at Clayton State with 1,096 points.

Griggs, a 5-5 junior from Ellenwood, was the Lakers' spark off the bench both offensively and defensively with her tremendous speed and agility. She is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.2 steals a game. Griggs scored in double-figures in 15 games with a career-high 28 points against Wingate, plus 20 points against Georgia Col lege.
 
Griggs is ranked seventh in the Peach Belt in free throw percentage (.764) and eighth in steals.

 Coming off last season's NCAA Division II National Championship, Cox paced the Lakers to their fifth Peach Belt Conference regular season championship in his eighth season at the Clayton State helm. Overall, this is the third time that he's been honored by the Peach Belt, having also won the award in 2007. Cox has paced Clayton State now to eight straight 20-win seasons, and with an overall record of 210-47 and a winning percentage of .818, he is the third-winningest active head coach in the nation at the Division II level.

Clayton State opens the 2012 Peach Belt Conference Tournament on Thursday with a 1p.m. quarterfinal matchup against Augusta State at the Lumpkin Center at Columbus State.