EDISON, NJ – Iona College women’s basketball senior guard Damika Martinez and junior forward Joy Adams earned All-MAAC recognition following standout performances in the regular season, the league announced today. Martinez and Adams were both selected to the First Team, with Martinez earning the recognition unanimously.
As First Team members, Martinez and Adams are eligible to be named MAAC Player of the Year. The winner will be announced on Friday, March 6 at 5:00 pm at the Postseason Awards Show at Swyer Theater at The Egg in Albany, N.Y. The show will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
The reigning two-time MAAC Player of the Year, Martinez earned her third straight All-MAAC First Team selection after picking up her fourth consecutive MAAC scoring title. She is the first player in league history to lead the MAAC in scoring four consecutive seasons. Martinez is currently third nationally with an average of 24.2 points per game, to go along with 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Martinez has scored in double figures in all 29 games this season, with 21 20-point efforts, and six games of 30 or more points.
Martinez became the MAAC’s all-time leading scorer on Feb. 20, with her 2,468th career point. She is also the MAAC’s career leader in three-point field goals, with 309. Martinez has scored 2,569 career points, ranking first among all active players in the country. A 2014 AP All-American Honorable Mention and All-Met Player of the Year selection, Martinez leads the MAAC in made free throws registering 117 points from the charity stripe this season.
Martinez has been named MAAC Player of the Week a league best four times this season. She was recently named a finalist for the 2015 Nancy Lieberman Award for the second consecutive season, given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s top point guard in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Martinez was also selected to the Mid-Season Watch List for the Dawn Staley Award.
Following a Second Team selection as a freshman during the 2011-12 season, Martinez has claimed three consecutive First Team selections, becoming the first four-time All-MAAC selection in program history. She is also the first player to earn three consecutive First Team selections since Marist’s Rachelle Fitz (’08, ’09, ’10).
Adams finished the regular season fourth nationally with 12.9 rebounds per game which led the MAAC for the third consecutive year, while finishing tied for 10th nationally in double-doubles with 17. Adams currently sits second nationally among active players with 1,167 career boards, third all-time in league history.
Adams also ranks fourth in the MAAC in scoring, with an average of 14.3 ppg, and ranks second in the league in steals averaging 2.3 per game. Adams has six 20-point efforts to her credit and eight games with 15 or more rebounds this season. She leads the nation with 149 offensive rebounds. Earlier this season, on Dec. 7, Adams tied a MAAC single game record with 26 rebounds.
Adams currently ranks 10th all-time in points in program history, third in rebounds, 10th in steals and 10th in blocks. She is the only player in program history to sit in the top 10 of all listed categories.
Martinez and Adams are joined on the First Team by Madeline Blais and Tori Jarosz of Marist and Quinnipiac’s Samantha Guastella.
The Second Team is made up of Kayla Hoohuli of Canisius, Niagara’ Meghan McGuinness and Victoria Rampado, Quinnipiac’s Val Driscoll and Tehresa Coles of Siena.
The Third Team consists of Fairfield’s Kristin Schatzlein and Casey Smith, Marist’s Sydney Coffey, Quinnipiac’s Gillian Abshire and Nikoline Ostergaard and Siena’s Margot Hetzke.
The Gaels, the number four seed in the 2015 MAAC Championship, will take on fifth seeded Siena, in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon at 2:30 pm.
