Rio Grande's Ella Skeens (far left) was named the River States Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year on Monday. Also earning All-RSC honors were Kaylee Darnell (upper right), Azyiah Willams (far left, lower right) and Lexi Woods (center, lower right). Head coach David Smalley (far right, lower right) was named the league's Coach of the Year.

Posted: Feb 27, 2023

Skeens named RSC Player of the Year; quartet of players, coach recognized

Rio Grande/RSC Sports Information
      MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - University of Rio Grande senior standout Ella Skeens collected her second straight River States Conference Player of the Year honor to headline the 2022-23 All-RSC Women's Basketball Teams and individual award winners.
      Selections for the All-RSC awards, which were made by the 13 head coaches in the conference, were announced Monday by league officials.
      The announcement also included women's basketball Scholar-Athletes and a Champions of Character Team.
      Skeens, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, leads the RSC in scoring at 24.0 points per game, which ranks third in all of the NAIA. She's shooting 53 percent from the field, 82 percent from the foul line and also grabs 8.0 rebounds per game, the latter of which is seventh in the RSC.
      Skeens, who set a new single-game school record with 50 points in a win over Asbury University, was named RSC Player of the Week five times and twice was named the NAIA National Player of the Week.
      Skeens and the rest of the No. 12-ranked RedStorm (27-3) host Midway University (23-7) in the RSC Championship finals on Tuesday night.
      Rio Grande also placed sophomore guard Kaylee Darnell (Wheelersburg, OH) on the First Team, while sophomore guard Azyiah Williams (Ripley, OH) was a Second Team pick and junior Lexi Woods (Waverly, OH) was among those on the Honorable Mention list.
      Darnell is Rio's second-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game, while completing a solid all-around game with 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
      Williams averages 7.5 points and a conference-best 6.3 assists per outing, while Woods - who returned after a year off from giving birth to a son - averages 10.4 points and 5.1 per contest.
      Veteran Rio head coach David Smalley, now in his 31st season as the RedStorm's bench boss, was also named RSC Coach of the Year. His program will be making its third consecutive trip to the NAIA National Championship after earning one of the league's two automatic berths to the tourney as its regular season champion.
      WVU-Tech junior guard Faith Silva was named RSC Women's Basketball Newcomer of the Year. She was sixth in the conference averaging 18.2 ppg and leads the entire NAIA with 115 made 3-point field goals this year.
      Silva was the top vote-getter among new players to the conference this year.
      Joining Skeens, Darnell and Silva on the first unit were Midway's Dezeree White (18.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 48% FG pct.) and Semaj Adams (10.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg); Emmy Ralph from Indiana University Southeast; Alice Lloyd (Ky.) College's Hannah Kash; Addie Brown of Indiana University East; Point Park (Pa.) University's Taylor Rinn; and Emilee Hope from Oakland City (Ind.) University.
      Rio Grande and Oakland City tied for the conference lead with four selections to the first, second and honorable mention teams.
      Oakland City and WVU Tech led the second team with two choices each, with the Golden Bears serving as one of four schools with three overall selections.
      In addition to Williams, the Second Team was comprised of Taylor Dillard and Jalaya Dowell from Oakland City; WVU-Tech's Alva Hedrich and Valiyah Yazzie; Rachel Bolyard of Ohio Christian University; Lauren Lambdin from IU Southeast; IU East's Kennedy Griffin; Brooklynn Jones from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College; and Alice Lloyd's Katie Jo Moore.
      The RSC Women's Basketball Champions of Character Team had one player from each school nominated by their head coach for best respresenting the NAIA's five character values of respect, responsibility, integrity, servant leadership and sportsmanship.
      Rio Grande was represented by freshman Grace Forrest (Mechanicsburg, OH).
      The RSC Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete Team had all players with a 3.25 GPA or higher who competed in women's basketball and have at least two semesters at their current school prior to this basketball season.
      Midway and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College tied for the conference lead with nine each on the scholar team.
      Rio Grande had seven student-athlete on the scholar list including Darnell, Woods and Forrest, along with seniors Reagan Willingham (Ashville, OH), Courtney Pifher (New Washington, OH) and Mickale Bates (Pickerington, OH) and sophomore Harlei Antritt (Newark, OH).