STANFORD, Calif. - Lexie Hull, Kiana Williams and Ashten Prechtel received recognition from the league's media when their award votes were announced by the conference office Wednesday morning.
The Pac-12 media awards are in their 11th year and are in addition to the conference awards voted on by the league's coaches, which were announced yesterday. The panel includes both local and national media members.
Prechtel was named the Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year, while Hull and Williams solidified their spots on the All-Pac-12 team. Prechtel was ineligible to win Sixth Player of the Year in the coaches' vote due to a conference rule mandating a player not start more than 25 percent of conference games to be considered for the award. Prechtel started 28 percent.
Also named honorable mention All-Freshman by the league coaches, Prechtel averages 7.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. From Colorado Springs, Colo., Prechtel has made six starts for the Cardinal and ventured into double figures 12 times, the most of any of Stanford's first year players. Prechtel has featured four double-doubles, three of which came in conference play, including a career performance at Washington State with 19 points and 14 rebounds.
An adept 3-point shooter, Prechtel is tied for fourth on the team with 23 made long balls this season, and featured heroics at home against Colorado, tying the game with 1.6 seconds left on an inbounds play at home vs. the Buffs. She ranks second on the Cardinal with 30 blocked shots.
Hull, named to both the All-Pac-12 Team and All-Defensive Team by the coaches, in addition to her All-Pac-12 nod by the media, is second on the squad in scoring, averaging 13.5 points per game, but leads the team in rebounding with a 6.0 average. The sophomore from Spokane, Wash. has scored in double figures 21 times this year, including six 20-plus point games and a career-high 29 in overtime against Colorado.
Oftentimes tasked with guarding the opposition's best offensive weapons, Hull has proven her merit as a defensive stopper, leading Stanford with 46 steals. She swiped a career-best seven in the first half alone in the Cardinal's victory over Ohio State in December, and her season and career best effort on the boards came in a loss at Texas, as Hull pulled down 12 rebounds against the Longhorns. Hull is one of two players to start in all 30 games for the Cardinal, and she showed up big under the bright lights against No. 3 Oregon, scoring 27 points with a career-high six 3-pointers. Hull has been a key example of versatility for Stanford this season, also dishing 61 assists, good for second on the squad.
Williams, now a two-time member of the All-Pac-12 team, leads the Cardinal in both scoring and assists, and ranks tied for first with Lexie Hull, owning 57 made 3-pointers. The true floor general for the Cardinal, Williams averages 34.0 minutes per game and is joined by Hull as the only player to start every contest. Williams' scoring average has risen as the season wears on, now up to 14.6 points per game, including six straight games in double figures as Stanford ventures into the postseason, her best scoring stretch of the year.
Williams is up to 22 double-digit scoring efforts this season, as she has led the Cardinal in scoring a team-leading 10 times. Her seven 20-plus point games are also tops on the team, and she dishes a Stanford-high 3.8 assists per game when she's not putting the ball in the basket herself. Understanding the defensive scout has been a key competent of Williams' game, and Williams ranks second with 33 steals this season. Perhaps her most talked about moment of the year was her heroics in Boulder, scoring the game-tying 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in regulation, getting a steal, and heaving a 40-foot, game-winning buzzer-beater against Colorado in February, earning SportsCenter's top play of the weekend. That game was Williams' finest in the scorebook, as the junior finished with a career-high 29 points and seven 3-pointers. Williams has risen up the record book in her third year on campus, becoming the program's 41st 1,000 point scorer earlier in the season against Tennessee, and now sitting fifth all-time with 219 made 3-pointers.
Stanford, the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament, has a bye into the quarterfinals and will play the winner of No. 6 Oregon State and No. 11 Washington State on Friday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m.