Michigan State University Athletics
Aerial Powers Collects WBCA All-Region Accolades
3/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" Michigan State women's basketball player Aerial Powers was named Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-Region, announced by the WBCA on Wednesday. Powers was one of 11 players earning Region Four accolades and is now eligible for WBCA All-American honors.
The junior guard becomes just the second player in program history to be a two-time WBCA All-Region honoree, joining Liz Shimek, who earned the honors in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Overall, Powers' accolade is the seventh WBCA All-Region award in MSU program history, and she is one of five Spartans to earn the honor.
Powers, a Detroit, Michigan, native, is one of eight players from the Big Ten Conference on the All-Region Four list, joined by Ameryst Alston of Ohio State, Rachel Banham of Minnesota, Nia Coffey of Northwestern, Katelyn Flaherty from Michigan, Brionna Jones of Maryland, Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough of Maryland. Kim Demmings of Wright State, Danaejah Grand of St. John's and Chanise Jenkins of DePaul round out the 11-player list. The Region Four list is comprised of five seniors, four juniors and two sophomores.
The Spartan guard had another record-setting season in 2015-16, becoming the MSU career scoring leader with 1,817 career points, passing Shimek's 1,780 points from 2002-06. Powers also passed her own single-season scoring record with 697 points this season, topping her 678 points last year. Additionally, Powers is the current MSU record holder for career points per game at 18.9. Powers snared 293 rebounds this season, moving up to No. 6 on the Spartans' single-season rebounds list. She also now has 937 boards for her career, passing Kris Emerson (1983-87) for No. 4 on the Spartans' career rebounds list, as Emerson had 933.
This season, Powers also broke the MSU career free throws made record, now with 438. Her 161 makes from the charity stripe this season is just behind her 170 made free throws last season, giving her the top two spots on MSU's single-season free throws made list.
The WBCA selection committee will select the 10-member Coaches' All-America Team from these 52 All-Region selections. The selection committee uses an equation to determine a fair number of nominees from each region. The number of Division I institutions in each region is divided by the number of Division I institutions overall to determine a percentage for each region. This percentage is then multiplied by 52 (the total number of desired finalists) to get the number of finalists for each region.
The 2016 WBCA NCAA Division I Coaches' All-America Team will be announced on Saturday, April 2, during NCAA® Women's Final Four® Super Saturday festivities in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
WBCA All-Region FourName - Institution Ameryst Alston - Ohio State Rachel Banham - Minnesota Nia Coffey - Northwestern Kim Demmings - Wright State Katelynn Flaherty - Michigan Danaejah Grant - St. John'sChanise Jenkins - DePaulBrionna Jones - MarylandKelsey Mitchell - Ohio StateAerial Powers - Michigan StateShatori Walker-Kimbrough - Maryland
