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Newark, NJ —The Northeast Conference coaches came up with a balanced, yet diverse, unit when they named the league’s top women’s basketball players heading into the coming season.

Five different NEC programs are represented on the all-star squad as two veteran guards, a pair of junior forwards and the reigning Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year comprise the five-member 2022-23 Preseason All-NEC Women’s Basketball Team.

Selected through a vote amongst the league’s head coaches, Central Connecticut senior guard Forever Toppin (Paterson, NJ/Sinai Christian Academy), FDU junior guard Chloe Wilson (Freeport, NY/South Shore), LIU sophomore guard Emaia O’Brien (Detroit, MI/Chandler Park Academy), Merrimack junior forward Teneisia Brown (Mount Vernon, NY/Mount Vernon (St. Andrew’s)) and Wagner graduate forward Zhaneia Thybulle (Elmont, NY/Elmont Memorial (UNC Wilmington)) comprise the Preseason All-NEC Team.

The NEC unveiled the Preseason Fab Five — along with a predicted preseason order of finish — on Wednesday during the #NECatthePRU Basketball Social Media Day at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. The preseason hoops announcements premiered on the Media Day webcast that aired on NEC Front Row and ESPN3.

Toppin — a do-it-all guard — averaged 7.8 points and 2.7 rebounds in a 29.0 minutes per game for Central Connecticut. Dropping double figures on eight opponents, the 5-foot-8 guard was the Blue Devils’ leader in assists (3.3 per game) and steals (1.9 per game) in 2021-22. A native of Paterson, NJ, Toppin was named the 2020-21 NEC Most Improved Player of the Year as a sophomore.

Wilson made her presence felt in frontcourts around the NEC circuit as a sophomore when FDU surged up the NEC standings to finish first for the first time since the 1992-93 campaign. She turned her 2021 NEC All-Rookie Team selection into a third team nod last year, which made her the lone underclassman to make an All-NEC team in 2022. Wilson nearly kept pace with the Knights’ top scorer, averaging 12.2 ppg to 2021-22 NEC Player of the Year Madison Stanley’s 12.3 ppg. The Freeport, NY native averaged 6.4 boards per game and was also pesky on the defensive end, accounting for more than one-quarter of FDU’s production in steals with 45 total (1.5 per game).

Despite her rookie status, O’Brien quickly became a recognizable name in NEC women’s hoops in 2021-22. The Detroit, MI native hauled in a league-best eight NEC Rookie of the Week awards and was unanimously tabbed the NEC Rookie of the Year. O’Brien elevated her game exponentially over the course of her first season at LIU. The 5-foot-1 guard averaged 9.0 points and 19.5 minutes during the first 10 games of the year. Fast forward to conference play, where she led the Sharks in minutes (30.4 per game) and was second in scoring at 10.3 points per contest. O’Brien ended her debut season on a tear, producing double-digit scoring in six of her final seven games while averaging 11.9 points during that stretch.

More than tripling her offensive output from her freshman to sophomore year, Brown’s development track has her poised for possibly an even bigger season in the frontcourt for the Warriors in 2022-23. Standing at 6-foot-2, the Mount Vernon, NY native was a strong finisher around the rim as her 47.8 field goal percentage was the third most efficient clip in the NEC. She boosted her scoring average from 3.1 to 10.5 ppg and is the league’s top returning rebounder after hauling in 6.6 boards per contest a year ago.

A seasoned veteran and team leader, Thybulle emerged as one of the top playmakers in the NEC last season and came away with third team hardware last season as a result. A consistent scorer who put up 10.1 points per night, the 5-foot-7 guard dropped a league-high 144 dimes — 31 more than the next competitor — and averaged 5.0 per game as a senior. Littering the NEC9 with highlight-reel worthy passes all season, the Elmont, NY native dished out 5-or-more helpers 16 times in 2021-22, with a pair of 11-assist outings going down as the top single-game performances in the circuit. Thybulle will look to pilot the Seahawks, who were picked to win the league in 2023, to their first NEC crown in more than three decades.
 
2022-23 Northeast Conference Preseason All-Conference Team    
          
Name                School        Pos.    Ht.      Cl.    Hometown/High School

About The Northeast Conference
Now in its 42nd season, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of nine institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Boston (#9), Hartford/New Haven (#33) and Providence (#53). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 24 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 15 different NCAA Championships. NEC member institutions include Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.