Player of the year - Conceicao claims OVC's top award

Southeast Missouri State junior Tatiana Conceicao was rewarded for her big season by being named the Ohio Valley Conference women's basketball player of the year Thursday night.

The league's postseason honors were announced in Nashville, Tenn., on the eve of the OVC tournament semifinals. Voting was done by the conference's head coaches and sports information directors.

On the men's side, Southeast senior forwards Dainmon Gonner and Reggie Golson were also rewarded for their impressive seasons. Gonner made the all-OVC first team, while Golson received second-team honors.

Conceicao, in her rookie season at Southeast after earning first-team junior college All-American honors last year at Western Nebraska Community College, is the OVC's second-leading scorer at 17.9 points per game.

Conceicao also ranks third in steals (70), fourth in field-goal percentage (.522) and seventh in rebounding (6.3 per game). She is only the second Southeast woman to win player of the year, joining Gray C. Harris (1995-96).

"Tatiana has just had a tremendous season so far, and it's great to see her win this honor, which she's very deserving of," Southeast coach B.J. Smith said. "She could easily have better numbers, but we play a lot of people, and we've been ahead by so much in a lot of games, so she doesn't play as many minutes as some other people."

Gonner, who was a leading candidate for OVC player of the year, does put in plenty of minutes, averaging an OVC-high 37 minutes per game for a team short on depth.

Gonner leads the league in scoring (20.4 ppg) and steals (69), while ranking seventh in rebounding (6.7 rpg) and seventh in field-goal percentage (.457). His scoring average is currently the highest for a Southeast player since Ronny Rankin averaged 20.5 points in 1985-86.

Golson leads the conference in rebounding (8.5 rpg) and blocked shots (64), while ranking fifth in scoring (16.6 ppg) and third in field-goal percentage (.555).

"It's really good to see Dainmon and Reggie make all-OVC. They've both had great seasons," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "Dainmon could have easily gotten player of the year, but making the first team is a big accomplishment."

Tennessee Tech senior forward Willie Jenkins, whose squad won the OVC regular-season title, was named player of the year. His 19.6 scoring average is second in the league, and he ranks among the leaders in six other major statistical categories.

Coach of the year honors went to both regular-season champions, Tennessee Tech's Mike Sutton for the men and Eastern Kentucky's Larry Joe Inman for the women.