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The two most-improved teams in Northeast Conference play this season split the league’s four major women’s basketball awards.

Robert Morris, which jumped from tenth place to the top of the standings in one year’s time, captured the NEC Player of the Year award and the Brenda Reilly NEC Coach of the Year honor.

Meanwhile, Wagner, which put forth its best conference showing in the last decade after going 2-16 in league play last season, saw two of its student-athletes capture the NEC Defensive Player of the Year honor and the NEC Rookie of the Year award.

The NEC unveiled the list of major award winners along with two five-member all-conference teams, an all-defensive team and an all-rookie squad through its Twitter account on Thursday, three days prior to the start of the 2014 NEC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Robert Morris senior forward Artemis Spanou (Rhodes, Greece) headlined the list of award winners; the 6-foot-2 forward became only the third woman in league history, and the first since 1995, to earn NEC Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons. RMU’s Sal Buscaglia shared the spotlight with his star player as he picked up the Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year accolade for the third time in his career.

Thanks to Wagner sophomore center Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY) the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award is heading to Grymes Hill for the first time ever. Meanwhile, Nwaigwe’s freshman teammate, Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY) became the first Seahawk to capture the NEC Rookie of the Year honor since 2001. Wagner’s starting point guard is the third player in program history to earn the honor, joining Carrie Walker (2001) and Cynthia Quinlan (1987).

Four of the five members of the All-NEC First Team were all-league preseason selections this past October. Spanou, Saint Francis U senior Alli Williams (Altoona, PA), Mount St. Mary’s senior Sydney Henderson (Richmond, VA) and Sacred Heart’s Gabby Washington (Mesa, AZ) all lived up to their preseason billing. LIU Brooklyn senior Cleandra Roberts (Miami, FL) rounded out the All-NEC First Team as the lone first-time all-league selection.

Bryant senior Naana Ankoma-Mensa (Brampton, Ontario) earned a spot on the All-NEC Second Team for the second year in a row. Senior point guard Jenniqua Bailey (Bloomfield, CT) doubled the Bulldogs’ representative on the Second Team with her first career selection. Central Connecticut senior Jessica Babe (Pittsburgh, PA) and St. Francis Brooklyn junior Eilidh Simpson (Melbourne, Australia) are also first-time honorees as is Nwajei, who added all-league second team honors to go along with her NEC Rookie of the Year hardware.

Nwaigwe headlined the inaugural NEC All-Defensive Team. Wagner’s shot-blocking center and St. Francis Brooklyn sophomore guard Leah Fechko (Twinsburg, OH) are the lone two underclassmen in the group. One of the nation’s top steals leaders for the second year in a row, Williams added all-defensive honors to her all-league first team selection. Babe, CCSU’s senior captain, also earned double honors. Fairleigh Dickinson forward Desiree Crawford (Aurora, Ontario) rounded out the list of the conference’s top-five defenders.

Two Robert Morris Colonials and a pair of Sacred Heart Pioneers joined Nwajei on the NEC All-Rookie Team.  Freshman guard Anna Niki Stamolamprou (Thessaloniki, Greece) and first-year center Cassie Oursler (Grand Island, NY) gives RMU double representation on the All-Rookie Team for the second year in a row. Sacred Heart junior forward Hannah Kimmel (Harpursville, NY) and freshman guard Adaysha Williams (LaCrosse, WI) captured the other two spots.

Spanou is the fourth player in league history to earn Player of the Year honors twice, joining Jess Zinoble (SFU, 1998 & 2000), Susie Rowlyk (MSM, 1995 & 1994) and Vanessa Blair (MSM, 1991 & 1992) as the only players to achieve that feat. The native of Greece is the fourth RMU player in the last 11 years to be honored following Sugeiry Monsac (2004-05), Sade Logan (2007-08) and Angela Pace (2008-09). She set six RMU career records, two NEC career records and three RMU game records this season. In a four-year career, she is at the top of four NEC record lists, 10 RMU marks and is in the top-10 in 12 different Robert Morris record categories.
 
Spanou, also the 2011 NEC Rookie of the Year, was named to the All-NEC First Team to earn all-conference honors for four consecutive seasons including three straight first team appearances. Spanou led the league in rebounding at 14.9 per game, the fourth season she's been the league leader. Her 19.2 points per game rank second among the league's players. Spanou was the only player in the NEC to make over half her shots, converting at 50.3 percent for the season. The 6'2" forward was also top-10 in the league in assists (6th, 114), blocked shots (8th, 28) and assist-to-turnover ratio (9th, 1.08) while leading the league in minutes (37.72).
 
The award caps off a career that has seen her rewrite the RMU, NEC and NCAA record books. Spanou is one of just seven players in Division I history to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 blocks. Along the way, she has collected 83 double-doubles, third most in NCAA history and an NEC record. Thirty-three of those double-doubles came consecutively, the second-longest streak of its kind in NCAA annals. With 1,510 career boards, she is ninth all-time in Division I while her 12.6 career rebounding average puts her tied for 11th.

Nwajei was a six-time Northeast Conference (NEC) Rookie of the Week selection this season, which ties a school record (Meredith Kearns, 1998-1999) and holds the Wagner freshman record for points (500) and assists (127). In 2013-2014, Nwajei was the second-leading scorer in the NEC (conference games) at 21.9 points per game and No. 1 in assists at 5.53 helpers per game. She scored 20 or more points in 12 of the 17 NEC games in which she played and topped the 20-point mark 13 times overall.
 
Overall, Nwajei has scored 25 or more points in a game eight times on the season, and tallied a career-high 29 points in a 67-48 win over Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU) on Feb. 17. That night, she narrowly missed a triple-double, adding 11 rebounds and nine assists to her 29-point total. Nwajei trumpeted her arrival to the college game in the season opener on November 10 when she scored the first five points of the game en route to a 19-point outing vs. No. 7 Kentucky.
 
Nwaigwe enters the NEC Tournament ranked No. 2 in the nation in blocked shots per game (4.00) and No. 1 in the NEC in both conference and overall games. Her 112 blocks easily shattered the previous Wagner single-season school record set by Ali Ridge in 2005-2006. She enters Sunday's play five blocks shy of the all-time NEC single-season blocks record of 117 set by Monmouth's Suzanne Johnson in the 1990-1991 season.
 
On February 17, the 6-3 Nwaigwe had an eye-opening 13 blocks vs. Fairleigh Dickinson, breaking both the previous Seahawk single-game record for blocks (10) and NEC single-game record (12). The 13-block game also tied for seventh on the NCAA Division I all-time single-game list and is just three shy of the all-time Division I mark of 16 and ties for the top shot-blocking game in NEC history. In that FDU game, she recorded the first triple-double in school history, with 12 points and 19 rebounds, to go with the 13 blocks.
 
While Nwaigwe's shot-blocking acumen gains most of the notoriety, she also ranked No. 1 in the NEC in field goal percentage at .630, while also ranking fourth in rebounding with an average of 10.2 boards per game. Nwaigwe delivered a mammoth 24-rebound game in a 16-point win over first-place Robert Morris on Feb. 3, which ties for the third-highest rebounding game in Wagner history and ties for the fifth-highest game in NEC history.

Buscaglia earns the Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year Award for the third time (2004-05, 2008-09) in his 11 seasons at the helm of the Colonials women's basketball program. This season marks a turnaround from a team that finished the 2012-13 season with seven wins and placed 10th in the NEC. Buscaglia led this year's team to the regular season title with a 14-4 mark in league play and an 18-11 overall record. With a roster that features eight underclassmen and just four upperclassmen, RMU overcame an early season slide to win 15 of its final 19 games and post a perfect mark, 9-0, in league home games. Buscaglia owns a 673-339 (.664) record in his 36th season of coaching. He is 184-147 (.556) at RMU, including a 130-68 (.656) record in NEC games.