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Northeast Conference women’s basketball regular season co-champions Bryant and Central Connecticut have produced numerous watershed moments over the past four months. Now, they add some major first-time individual honors to that list.

Junior forward Breanna Rucker (Cincinnati, OH) became the first Bryant Bulldog to capture the NEC Player of the Year award while her freshman teammate, Ivory Bailey (Wyomissing, PA), earned the first NEC Rookie of the Year selection in program history.

For the first time since Central Connecticut joined the league in 1998, the Brenda Reilly NEC Coach of the Year award has found a home in New Britain. Beryl Piper owns the honor after leading the Blue Devils to a single-season program-record 14 conference victories.

Fairleigh Dickinson’s Erika Livermore (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) also accounted for a program first. The 6-foot-2 center is the reason why the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award, an honor that was established in 1999, sits in Hackensack for the first time ever.

Rucker and Livermore also occupied spots on the five-member All-NEC First Team while Bailey headlined the five-member All-Rookie Team. The Northeast Conference honored two all-conference squads, an all-defensive team and the all-rookie group. The league announced its selections via the @NECsports Twitter account on Friday, two days prior to the start of the 2015 NEC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Rucker was a workhorse for Bryant during the program’s first-ever 20-win season at the Division I level. The small forward ranked amongst the NEC’s top-10 statistical leaders in four major categories – scoring (16.0 ppg), rebounding (11.4 rpg), field goal percentage (.471) and free throw percentage (.758). The third-year Bulldog started all 29 games on the regular season schedule, averaging the eighth-most minutes (35.2) per game all of NEC players. Rucker performed well against prime competition, too. Two of her league-high 21 double-doubles, a number that ranks Rucker fourth amongst Division I national leaders, came against ACC member Boston College and Big East member Providence. She also hit double digits in both points and rebounds 67 percent of the time during conference play. Rucker’s 11.4 rebounds per game average was good enough to land her the NEC regular season rebounding title while ranking her 10th amongst the nation’s best.

Livermore is no stranger to the All-NEC First Team. She earned first team accolades during the 2012-13 season, but, then, an ACL tear robbed her of the entire 2013-14 campaign. The Keystone State product returned to the court this past fall and immediately put her all-NEC ability on display. Livermore tallied 22 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks in FDU’s season-opening rout of MAAC member Manhattan. She went on to compile 14 double-doubles in 29 starts. The 6-foot-2 center completed the regular season ranking third amongst the league’s scoring leaders (18.5 ppg) and second amongst the top rebounders (10.1 rpg). The NEC’s second-most efficient shooter, Livermore converted 47.9 percent of her field goal attempts this season. Defensively, her 2.4 blocks per game are the most in the conference. The two-time all-NEC first teamer pulled down 5.4 defensive rebounds per contest, the fourth-most in the league.

Bailey wasted little time establishing herself as one of the NEC’s most dynamic scorers. A force to be reckoned with since Day 1, Bailey poured in 24 points and grabbed seven boards in a season-opening victory over America East member Maine. The 5-foot-7 freshman went on to average 11.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per contest. She scored in double digits during 15 of the Bulldogs’ 29 games and sank 49 three-pointers to lead all NEC freshmen in that category. Bailey, who converted at 80.8 percent from the charity stripe, earned a league-high six NEC Rookie of the Week awards over the course of the season.

Piper presided over Central’s Connecticut’s winningest season as a Northeast Conference member, grossly exceeding external expectations while doing so. The Blue Devils tied for last place in the NEC preseason coaches’ poll, but proceeded to capture a share of the regular season conference crown for the first time since joining the league in 1998. Setting a single-season program-record, CCSU posted 14 conference victories to capture the No. 1 seed in the upcoming NEC Tournament. Despite having only one scorer averaging in double figures, the Blue Devils won 18 of 29 regular season contests. Piper, a former CCSU student-athlete in the mid-1980s, directed one of the NEC’s stingiest defenses. Against conference opponents, Central ranked first amongst team leaders in scoring defense (55.7 ppg), field goal percentage defense (.365) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.273). At the least, Piper’s team is guaranteed a WNIT postseason berth, but has hopes of securing a bid to the Big Dance.


Detailed info all honorees will be available later tonight.