Radford University had four members of its women’s basketball program recognized by the Big South Conference in its annual awards announcement. Georgia Simonsen was named Freshman of the Year and selected to the second-team all-conference. Head Coach Mike McGuire received Co-Coach of the Year honors. Joi Williams earned a spot on the first-team all-conference, while Angelina Nice was chosen for the all-academic team.
Simonsen led the Big South with 35 blocks and ranked among the top 125 nationally in that category. She also led conference play in field goal percentage and total blocks, averaging 14 points per game—seventh highest in conference games—and finishing tenth in rebounds. Simonsen topped all Big South freshmen in several categories, including scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, and blocks. She was one of only ten players in the conference to record at least three double-doubles and was the only freshman to do so. Simonsen reached double figures in scoring in 19 games and earned seven Freshman of the Week awards. She is now the fifth player from Radford to be named Big South Freshman of the Year.
McGuire claimed his fourth ‘Coach of the Year’ award from the Big South Conference, tying him for second-most coaching awards in league history alongside Rick Reeves, a former coach at Liberty and Gardner-Webb. He became Radford’s winningest basketball coach on November 11 after defeating Loyola and achieved his 200th career win on December 18 against Hampton. Under McGuire’s leadership, Radford recorded its fourth season with at least 20 wins following a victory over Gardner-Webb. For this season’s award, he shares honors with Gardner-Webb’s Terri Williams—the first time since 2000-01 that two coaches have shared this recognition.
Williams was one of just two players in the conference to average at least 14 points per game along with at least 2.4 made three-pointers per contest; Macy Spencer (High Point), who won Player of the Year, was the other. Williams’ total of 76 made three-pointers ranks as second-best for a single season at Radford. She finished second in three-point shooting percentage during conference play, sixth overall in scoring, and seventh in field goal percentage within league games. Nationally, Williams placed among Division I’s top 75 for threes per game and top 125 for steals. On December 4 against Navy, she scored a career-high 36 points—the first Radford player to do so since 1994—and became just one of sixty Division I athletes this year to reach or exceed that mark.
Nice was named to the Big South All-Academic Team for her achievements both on court and academically; she holds a cumulative GPA of 3.96 as a marketing major. After joining as a walk-on last season, Nice has become an important bench contributor and ended fourth on her team with an average of 7.9 points per game. Her standout performances include being named to an all-tournament team during Thanksgiving week at Cleveland State Invitational and scoring a career-high 23 points against Loyola Maryland on November 11.
The Highlanders are set to compete next at the Air Force Reserves Big South Tournament in Johnson City, Tennessee, starting Thursday evening against Charleston Southern.
