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Life > Athletics > Basketball > 3/4/08
RENZ AND DURR RECOGNIZED AS ALL-LONE STAR CONFERENCE
 BARTLESVILLE, Oklahoma (March 4) – Two Texas Woman’s University Pioneers – junior post Renee Renz and sophomore guard Jessica Durr – were named to the 2008 All-Lone Star Conference Women’s Basketball South Division team.
Renz (pictured at right)) was chosen for the All-LSC South Division first team and also picked as the LSC South Division Newcomer of the Year. Durr was named Honorable Mention All-LSC South Division. The 2008 LSC Women’s Basketball postseason awards were announced Tuesday night at a pre-tournament banquet in Bartlesville, Oklahoma where the 2008 LSC Basketball Championship is set to begin on Thursday.
A transfer from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Renz was nothing short of dominant in her first season as a Pioneer. She led TWU, and was fourth in the entire LSC, by scoring 18.3 points per game. She also pulled down a TWU team-best 8.9 rebounds per game, tying for the third-highest rebound total in the LSC. The Flower Mound High School product also finished tops on the TWU roster in total points (495), field goals made (177), field goals attempted (374), field goal percentage (.473), free throws made (123), free throws attempted (166), offensive rebounds (70), defensive rebounds (169), total rebounds (239), blocks (22) and steals (49). She scored double-figures in 25 of the Pioneers’ 27 games played and totaled more than 20 points on eleven occasions. She also recorded a remarkable eleven double-doubles.
“Renee was outstanding all season long,” said TWU head coach Beth Jillson. “She set the tone for our team on both ends of the court. By the end of the year, she was playing better than anybody in the entire conference. She is richly deserving of both of these honors.”
Renz is the first TWU player to win the LSC South Division Newcomer of the Year award and just the fourth player in the history of the program (along with Margaret Wimbish, Rhonda Wilson, and Peggy Allen-McCoy) to earn All-LSC South first team status.
 This is the second consecutive season that Durr (pictured at left) has received Lone Star Conference postseason recognition. In 2007, after her freshman campaign, she was tabbed as the LSC South Division Freshman of the Year and named Honorable Mention All-LSC South Division. As a sophomore this year, she scored at a clip of 12.3 points per game and pulled down 5.3 rebounds per game. She also dished out 2.7 assists per game, swiped 38 steals, and played a TWU team-high 35.2 minutes per game.
“Jessica impacted games in so many ways for us this season,” said Jillson. “She scored, she created, she defended; she did whatever we needed her to do in order for us to win. I’m really proud of the way she developed as a player as the season went along.”
The tremendous play of Renz and Durr helped the Pioneers’ to a 12-15 overall record in 2007-08 and a 7-7 mark in LSC South Division play. TWU won four of their last five LSC South games played and very nearly upset of West Texas A&M University, the regular season LSC South champion and the sixteenth-ranked team in all of NCAA Division II, in their final game of the season last Saturday afternoon. The seven wins in the LSC South were the most for TWU since the 1995-96 season.
“This team is definitely headed in the right direction,” explained Jillson. “We have four of our five starters – including Renee and Jessica – coming back next season. I’m also expecting a big impact from the freshmen and transfers that we are bringing in. The building blocks are definitely in place for this program to take a major leap forward.” |
