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Jamie Loera wins Big Sky MVP honors as Eastern Washington earns several all-conference awards

Jamie Loera, who helped lead Eastern Washington to the Big Sky title, earned the conference’s MVP and defensive player of the year awards. (Courtesy/EWU athletics)
By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review

A season flush with victories just became one flush with individual awards for the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team.

The Eagles were frequently represented on the Big Sky Conference awards announced Thursday, as Jamie Loera was given a trio of honors, Joddie Gleason was named coach of the year and Aliyah Alexander and Jaleesa Lawrence were named first- and second-team all-conference, respectively.

The conference’s 10 head coaches voted Loera unanimously as Big Sky Most Valuable Player and as a first-team selection. She was also picked as defensive player of the year for the second season in a row.

Loera spearheads an Eagles defense that leads the Big Sky in scoring average against (55.8 points per game), opponent field-goal percentage (36.5%) and turnover margin (plus-5.19). The 5-foot-9 guard leads the conference in steals (72) and ranks 11th in rebounds per game (5.9).

Alexander, a redshirt sophomore guard, ranks second in the conference in scoring at 15 ppg and has made 42.2% of her shots, fifth best among qualifying Big Sky players. She has also made 42 of 111 3-point attempts and has scored fewer than 10 points in only five games this season.

Lawrence, a junior from Meridian, Idaho, has started 24 of 31 games this season and is the team’s third-leading scorer (10.7 ppg) behind Loera (13.3) and Alexander.

For Lawrence and Alexander, this is the first all-conference selection of their careers.

After leading the Eagles to a 26-5 overall record and a 16-2 mark in conference play in her third season at Eastern, Gleason earned her second conference coach of the year award eight years after being named the California Collegiate Athletic Association’s top coach while at Division II Humboldt State University in 2015.

Eastern’s 26 victories this season are a program record, and its 45 wins since the start of the 2022-23 season are the most over a two-year span.

Montana picked up a pair of player of the year honors for Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw (newcomer) and Gina Marxen (top reserve). Summah Hanson from Sacramento State was named freshman of the year.

Joining Loera and Alexander on the first team are Sophie Glancey, Northern Arizona; Kennedy Johnson, Idaho; Carmen Gfeller, Montana; Esmeralda Morales, Portland State; and Delaynie Byrne, Northern Colorado. Glancey’s selection was also unanimous.