UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Lady Lion junior guard Alex Bentley (Indianapolis, Ind.) was named as one of the 52 All-Region nominees for the 2012 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division I Coaches’ All-America Team. She is the first Lady Lion to garner WBCA All-Region accolades since Amanda Brown took home honors in 2007. The All-Region nominees list will be reviewd by the selection committee on Monday, March 19 and trim the list to the 40 finalists, all of whom will be in the running for selection to the 10-member WBCA Division I Coaches’ All-America Team.
Bentley is the 15th different Penn State player to earn All-Region accolades, joining the likes of Kelly Mazzante, Helen Darling, Maren Walseth, Susan Robinson, Suzie McConnell and Kahadeejah Herbert. Those 15 Lady Lions have combined for 24 total All-Region honors in program history.
A two-time All-Big Ten first team choice, Bentley is 12th in the conference in scoring (14.2), third in assists (4.8) and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4). Additionally, she is second in the Big Ten and 20th nationally in steals, averaging 3.1 per game. She has six games this season with five or more steals. The Big Ten All-Defensive team choice led Big Ten action with 49 steals in 16 games. She is the first Lady Lion to lead the league in steals since Jess Strom did it in back-to-back years in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
The Indianapolis native became the 33rd player and 15th junior in school history to score 1,000 career points against Virginia Tech. She is 17th on PSU’s career scoring chart with 1,296 career points. Bentley is also the 11th player in Penn State history with 400 assists and sits in 10th on the program’s all-time list with 443 helpers. With three thefts in the regular-season finale against Minnesota, Bentley became the 13th player in school history to nab 200 steals.
Bentley is one of four Big Ten representatives on the Region 6 team, joining Ohio State’s Tayler Hill and Samantha Prahalis and Nebraska’s Jordan Hooper. The fifth member of the Region 6 team is UW-Green Bay’s Julie Wojta.
WBCA All-Region 6 Team Alex Bentley, Penn State Tayler Hill, Ohio State Jordan Hooper, Nebraska Samantha Prahalis, Ohio State Julie Wotja, UW-Green Bay
The 2012 WBCA Division I Coaches’ All-America Team will be announced at 3:05 p.m. (ET) Saturday, March 31, during the NCAA’s Super Saturday festivities at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
About the WBCA:
Founded in 1981, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. The WBCA is pleased to join the women’s sports community in commemorating the 40th anniversary of Title IX, which was passed by Congress on June 23, 1972, and provides females with equal opportunities in athletics in the U.S. For more information on the WBCA, please visit wbca.org.
The Lady Lions the fourth seed in the Kingston Region of the 2012 NCAA Tournament and open play against No. 13 seed UTEP (29-3, 15-1 C-USA) on Sunday at 5:15 p.m. (ET) in Baton Rouge, La. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and available on ESPN3.com. The Penn State-UTEP contest will be the first game of a doubleheader with No. 5 seed LSU (22-10, 10-6 SEC) facing No. 12 San Diego State (25-6, 12-2 Mountain West) 25 minutes after the conclusion of the first game on ESPN2. The winner of each game will face off in a second round matchup on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. (ET).
