Delaware's Delle Donne Earns Third CAA Player of the Year Honor in 2013

Photo Gallery

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Coach of the Year - Daynia La-Force, Northeastern

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Year-In-Review

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Player of the Year - Elena Delle Donne, Delaware

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Dean Ehlers Award Honoree - Hollie Mershon, Drexel

2013 Women's #CAAHoops All-Rookie Team

2013 Women's #CAAHoops First Team

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Defensive Player of the Year - Candace Bond, Hofstra

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Third Team

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Second Team

2013 Women's #CAAHoops Rookie of the Year - Precious Hall, James Madison

Women's #CAAHoops Awards Banquet -- Recap

To watch any of the videos mentioned in this story on your mobile device or tablet download one of our newly redesigned apps or visit us on YouTube.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (March 13, 2013) - Delaware senior guard/forward Elena Delle Donne was honored as the 2013 Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball Player of the Year in voting by the league's head coaches. The announcement was made Wednesday evening at the CAA's pre-tournament banquet in National Harbor, Md.

Also receiving top honors were Northeastern's Daynia La-Force as CAA Coach of the Year, Hofstra's Candace Bond as Defensive Player of the Year and James Madison's Precious Hall as CAA Rookie of the Year. Drexel's Hollie Mershon was chosen as the recipient of the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award.

Delle Donne earns the third CAA Player of the Year honor of her career, joining Old Dominion's Lucienne Berthieu and Celeste Hill as the only other players to receive the conference's top award three times in their careers. The senior guard/forward ranks second in the nation in scoring with 25.5 points per game and third in free throw percentage at 92.3 percent per game. Delle Donne also leads the league in three-point field goal percentage (48.4%), ranks second in blocks (2.4 bpg) and seventh in rebounding (8.4 rpg). The senior holds four CAA all-time records, including points (2,870), field goals made (970), free throws made (730), and blocked shots (262).

La-Force guided Northeastern to a 17-12 overall record and a 10-8 conference mark in her fifth season at the helm of the Huskies. She helped NU achieve their best season since the 1999-2000 campaign and the 17 wins are the most wins in her tenure at Northeastern. La-Force also guided the Huskies to a school-record 11 wins at home this season, while their 10 CAA victories is the best since Northeastern joined the conference in 2005-06.

Bond, a senior forward, ranked among the top four in the league in steals for the third year in a row. This season she led the Pride and ranked second in the CAA with 2.6 steals per game and helped Hofstra rank third in steals per game. Bond finished the regular season with a team-high 27 blocked shots. She is the first Hofstra player to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Hall led all of the conference's freshmen in scoring this season with 9.6 points per game. She started the final 21 games of the regular season for James Madison and ranked fourth in the league in free-throw percentage (.863). The freshman guard contributed 51 assists and 38 steals during her rookie campaign. Hall is the Dukes' the first Rookie of the Year recipient since 2003-04 and their sixth overall.

Mershon is the recipient of the Dean Ehlers Leadership award, which is presented annually to the women's basketball student-athlete who "embodies the highest standards of leadership, integrity, and sportsmanship in conjunction with her academic athletic achievement." Mershon, a senior guard, started all 29 games this season and ranks second in the CAA with 19.4 points per game. She also leads her team in rebounds (6.2 rpg), assists (4.3 apg) and steals (39).

Joining Delle Donne and Mershon on the All-CAA first team were junior guard Kirby Burkholder and senior guard Tarik Hislop of James Madison, and Hofstra senior forward Shante Evans.

Burkholder ranked eighth in the league in scoring (14.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (8.9 rpg). Hislop led the Dukes with 16.6 points and 3.4 assists per game. Evans is the CAA's all-time leading rebounder with 1,331 career boards and averaged a double-double to lead the Pride with 16.7 points and 11.7 rebounds per contest.

When the action starts Thursday and Friday we encourage all fans not in attendance to logon to CAA.TV for a free live video stream as well as a live radio feed from the first five games of the championships. The audio will also be available at via each of our iPhone and iPad apps. A FREE login is required to access the audio.

We invite you to share your #CAAHoops thoughts, ideas and photos with us on Facebook. We are also on Twitter @CAAHoops and encourage fans from all our schools to follow our tweets for all the latest league information. Be sure to tag all #CAAHoops-related tweets with our official hashtag #CAAHoops. Fans can also follow CAASports on Instagram, which will likely have several photos posted during the weekend's events and be sure to tag your Instagram photos with the #CAAHoops hashtag and we'll like them.

We are blogging at caawomenshoops.wordpress.com as well, so check out "Baseline Buzz" our official women's hoops blogs to find additional information that may not be available here on CAASports.com.

2013 CAA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Elena Delle Donne, Delaware
2013 CAA COACH OF THE YEAR: Daynia La-Force, Northeastern
2013 CAA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Precious Hall, James Madison
2013 CAA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Candace Bond, Hofstra
2013 DEAN EHLERS LEADERSHIP AWARDS: Hollie Mershon, Drexel