Oosdyke and Mallon honored by collegesportsmadness

GREELEY – Collegesportsmadness.com, a website dedicated solely to collegiate sports, has released its Big Sky women’s basketball preseason all-conference teams and Northern Colorado had two players honored.

Junior forward Lauren Oosdyke, a Big Sky All-Conference First Team selection a year ago and the team’s returning leading scorer, was named to the preseason first-team while Lindsay Mallon, a freshman guard from Lone Tree, Colo., and Highlands Ranch High School, has been named the preseason Freshman of the Year.

Portland State’s Eryn Jones, last year’s league MVP has also been named the preseason Player of the Year and a member of the first team, joining Idaho State’s Chelsea Pickering, Eastern Washington’s Brianne Ryan and Montana State’s Rachel Semansky.

Katie Bussey (Montana State), Amy Patton (Northern Arizona), Courtney VanBrocklin (Portland State), Katie Baker (Montana) and Kylie Kuhns (Sacramento State) were named to the second team by the website.

Northern Colorado went 17-14 and advanced to its first-ever postseason play at Division I after winning a share of the regular season Big Sky Conference title. The Bears played in the Women’s Basketball Invitational and return eight letterwinners from that squad, including three starters in Oosdyke, 2011 Big Sky Freshman of the Year D’shara Strange and senior forward Kaisha Brown.

The team opens exhibition play on Nov. 4 when they host Regis at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion at 7 pm. Season tickets are available online or by calling: 970.351.4849.