At a Thursday evening press conference at Nationwide Arena prior to the NCAA Women’s Final Four, Baylor women’s basketball junior Kalani Brownwas named to the 2018 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ All-America Team.
For the second year in a row, the 6-7 center is one of 10 players to receive All-America recognition from the organization. She is the only representative from the Big 12 Conference included. Brown has received six All-America awards this season and eight in her Lady Bear career.
Sophomore Lauren Cox and senior Kristy Wallace received 2018 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ All-America honorable mention accolades along with 40 other WBCA All-Region honorees. Both are first-time WBCA honorees. It is the second All-America nod of the season for Cox, who was named to the Associated Press All-America team. Wallace, a first-time All-American, is the 19th All-American in program history.
The trio led the Lady Bears to a 33-2 overall record and a flawless 18-0 mark in the Big 12 regular season for the program’s eighth consecutive title. Baylor went on to win its seventh Big 12 Championship in the last eight seasons, earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and finish in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Brown was unanimously named Big 12 Player of the Year and to the All-Big 12 first team after scoring more points (702) and pulling down more rebounds (257) than any other conference player and shooting a Big 12-leading 65.0 percent from the floor. She was also named Most Outstanding Player of the Big 12 Championship for averaging 24.7 points and 10.7 rebounds in the three-game stretch.
On the season, Brown recorded two 30-point games, 19 20-point efforts, two 20-rebound performances and 18 double-digit rebound games. She ranks fourth nationally in field goal percentage (65.0), fifth in field goals made (278), 14th in final points (702) and double-doubles (18), 17th in rebounds (257) and 27th in points per game (20.1).
Cox was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and to the All-Big 12 first team for the first time in her career. She led the conference and ranked 14th nationally in blocked shots (92), while averaging 15.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per contest.
Cox registered 15 double-doubles, one 30-point effort, seven 20-point performances and 17 double-digit rebound games this year. After averaging a double-double (14.0 points, 10.0 rebounds) in the three-game stretch, she was named to the Big 12 All-Championship Team.
Wallace was unanimously named to the All-Big 12 first team for the first time in her career and to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team. Despite having her season cut short due to injury 29 games in, she dished out a team-high 155 assists, which ranks fourth in the Big 12 and 59th nationally. She averaged 12.9 points, 5.3 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per contest.
This season, Wallace was named espnW National Player of the Week on Jan. 29 after netting a career-high 27 points against No. 6/6 Texas and 25 points at No. 19/20 West Virginia. One of three players to dish out 500 career assists at Baylor, Wallace led Baylor in assists 20 times and scoring six times this year.
