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UConn’s Napheesa Collier headlines AP women’s All-America team

UConn senior forward Napheesa Collier averaged a double-double this season and led the Huskies to their 12th straight Final Four appearance. (Kathy Willens / Associated Press)
UConn senior forward Napheesa Collier averaged a double-double this season and led the Huskies to their 12th straight Final Four appearance. (Kathy Willens / Associated Press)
By Doug Feinberg Associated Press

NEW YORK – Napheesa Collier has had an incredible senior year so far, leading UConn back to the Final Four for a 12th consecutive year.

The senior forward averaged 20.9 points, 10.5 rebounds and shot 61.4% during the regular season for the Huskies to earn a spot on The Associated Press women’s basketball All-America team.

“There haven’t been a lot of players like her that I’ve seen, a few, but not a lot,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.

She was joined on the All-America team Monday by Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, Louisville’s Asia Durr and Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan. Voting was done before the NCAA Tournament by the 28-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week.

Collier received the most votes, garnering 27 first place votes from the panel. She is third on UConn’s all-time scoring list with 2,386 points and third in shooting percentage and fourth in rebounding.

Gustafson put up eye-popping numbers at Iowa this season and got the Hawkeyes back to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1993. She averaged a Division I-best 28 points while also ranking second in rebounding. She had 33 double-doubles to tie the NCAA’s single season record.

“She’s completely taken over our record books,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “Her legacy will stand for a long, long time.”

While Gustafson has been a double-double machine, Ionescu has rewritten the NCAA record book for triple-doubles and helped the Ducks reach the Final Four for the first time. She has 18 triple-doubles in her career, including one in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Indiana. She averaged 19.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.1 assists during the regular season for the Ducks. Durr has been one of the best scorers in the country the past few seasons and was an All-American for the second consecutive season. She averaged 21.3 points this season for the Cardinals.

McCowan has had a stellar senior season, carrying Mississippi State to the first SEC Tournament title in school history and earning most outstanding player honors in the process. She averaged 17.8 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks.

The second team consisted of Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale, Baylor’s Kalani Brown, California’s Kristine Anigwe, Stanford’s Alanna Smith and Iowa State’s Bridget Carleton.

UConn’s Katie Lou Saumelson headlined the third team. She was joined by Notre Dame teammates Jessica Shepard and Jackie Young, Baylor’s Lauren Cox and Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham.

Durr, Ionescu, Samuelson, Ogunbowale and Brown made up the preseason All-America team.