Indiana Fever’s Tamika Catchings leads All WNBA First Team
Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings led the five-member All-WNBA First Team selection, released on Tuesday.
Catchings was the runaway winner, heading all contestants with 187 points. Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry was second with 172 points, Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi was third with 168 points, Connecticut Sun centre
Tina Charles was fourth with 166 points, and Minnesota Lynx guard Lindsay Whalen fifth with 164 points.
A panel of national and local sportswriters and broadcasters conducted voting for the All-WNBA First and Second Teams. The players were picked by position and were given five points for each First Team vote and three points for
each Second Team designation.
Chicago Sky centre and the 2011 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles headed the Second Team with 150 points. Trailing Fowles in the points were Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird (123 points), New York Liberty guard Cappie
Pondexter (94 points), Phoenix Mercury forward Penny Taylor (82 points), and Minnesota Lynx guard Seimone Augustus (69 points).
As a reward for being named to the All-WNBA First Team, each player will receive a Tiffany & Co. designed trophy. In addition, $10,000 will be awarded to each member of the First Team and $5,000 to each participant of the Second
Team.
Catchings, the four-time defensive player of the year, finished the WNBA 2010 regular season with an average of 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, leading her team the Eastern Conference finals four straight years.
Additionally, the player averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game in the conference semi-finals. The point’s average of the player dropped to 8.7 in the conference finals but rebounds and steals
on the other hand improved to 9.0 and 2.3, respectively.
Earlier this season, the league selected the Former Tennessee Lady one among its 15 greatest players. The 6 ft 1 in forward player was also selected the WNBA’s 2011 Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the very first time in her nine-year
WNBA career.
Catchings’ best game of the season came against New York Liberty on August 13, 2011 at Conseco Fieldhouse. She tied a career high with 32 points, becoming just the sixth league player to score 5,000 points, in Indiana’s 82-71 win
over the visiting Liberty. In addition to a terrific performance, Catchings also set a franchise record by making 17 free throws in the victory.
"Catch is a multidimensional player,'' Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. ``I think sometimes she has not given enough credit for all the different things she can do. She gets assists, she gets steals, she gets rebounds, she scores and
she defends like nobody else in the league.”
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