Summer Hemphill Named Big 4 Player of the Year

BUFFALO, NY - University at Buffalo women's basketball senior forward Summer Hemphill headlined the 2019-20 Preseason All-Big 4 basketball teams, which were announced Monday afternoon in advance of the official start of the college basketball season. Hemphill was a unanimous selection for the First Team along with being named Big 4 Player of the Year for the first time in her UB career.

The Bulls saw three players earn a spot on the All-Big 4 squads that were voted on by media and athletic communications staffs that cover Buffalo, Canisius, Niagara and St. Bonaventure. Joining Hemphill on the First Team is senior Theresa Onwuka and junior Hanna Hall.

Hemphill enters her senior campaign as the best player in Western New York and she will be looked upon to lead the Bulls to their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance this season. The Buffalo, NY native, who was also named to the Preseason All-MAC East Division Team last week, was named second-team All-MAC last season after averaging career-highs in minutes (36.6), points (14.5) and rebounds (10.3) while making 58.1% of her field goal attempts and 73.7% of her free throw attempts. She was also selected to the MAC All-Tournament team after setting a MAC Tournament record with 21 rebounds while adding 16 points in the win over Ohio in the championship game. Hemphill is currently tied for 10^th on the career rebounds list at UB with 759 and is just 81 points away from becoming Buffalo's 26^th 1,000 point scorer. The senior was also named to the Katrina McClain Award watch list earlier this month as one of the top forwards in Division 1 college basketball.

Onwuka is coming off a career year during her junior campaign as she averaged career-highs in points (9.4), rebounds (5.3) and minutes (26.1) while finishing with 44 steals, 42 assists and 10 blocks. She scored a career-high 20 points on a career-high nine field goals at Dayton and set a career-high with 13 rebounds against Stanford, while producing 17 double figure scoring efforts on the year.

Hall had a breakout sophomore campaign, appearing in 34 games while earning 27 starts, averaging 6.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, while finishing with 25 steals and 101 assists. The junior earned All-MAC Tournament honors after averaging 13.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists over three games in Cleveland and scored 12 points while recording a career-high eight assists in the Bulls' NCAA Tournament first round win over Rutgers.

The Bulls will open up their 2019-20 campaign on Tuesday, November 5 as they host Central Connecticut State at Alumni Arena for a 7pm tip.

2019-20 Preseason All-Big 4 Women's Basketball Teams

First Team
*Summer Hemphill, Buffalo – Preseason Big 4 Player of the Year
Theresa Onwuka, Buffalo
Hanna Hall, Buffalo
*D'Jhai Patterson-Ricks, Canisius
*Jai Moore, Niagara

Second Team:
Danielle Sanderlin, Canisius
Emeral Ekpiteta, Niagara
Maggie McIntyre, Niagara
Deja Francis, St. Bonaventure
Asianae Johnson, St. Bonaventure

* denotes unanimous selection

Calendar

Summer Hemphill Named Big 4 Player of the Year

Players Mentioned

Hanna Hall

Summer Hemphill

Theresa Onwuka