Mack Named Conference MVP, Williams and Perkins Selected
The post-season accolades continue to compile for the Angelina College Lady Roadrunner basketball team, with Region XIV conference officials releasing the All-Region and All-Conference list this week.
Natasha Mack, the reigning NJCAA National Player of the Year, earned the conference’s Most Valuable Player award along with 1st Team All-Region and 1st Team All-Conference nods.
Mia Williams earned 1st Team All-Conference honors, and Mia Perkins received an Honorable Mention All-Conference award.
Mack and Williams are two home-grown East Texans who were familiar with one another long before they became AC teammates. Mack was a standout at Lufkin High School, while Williams left Diboll High School as one of the school’s best-ever athletes. Although competing in different classifications and districts, the two competed against one another frequently.
When the pair joined forces with the Lady Roadrunners, they became a formidable inside-outside duo responsible for leading Angelina College to national prominence. AC cracked the nation’s top 10 earlier this season, and just last week qualified for the NJCAA Division I national tournament tipping off in Lubbock on Monday.
Perkins, who attended Westbury Christian High School in Houston, provided the perfect complement to Mack’s inside presence. Perkins finished fifth in the conference with 5.6 rebounds per game and finished second with 109 offensive rebounds, ensuring the Lady ‘Runners enjoyed multiple opportunities for second-chance buckets. Perkins pulled down a season high 19 rebounds on Feb. 23 against Paris College. In the Region XIV tournament semifinals against No. 4 Trinity Valley Community College, she helped vault AC into the finals with an 18-point, eight-rebound effort.
Mack finished the season as the conference leader in four different categories, including scoring (23.8 ppg), rebounding (11.6 rpg), field-goal percentage (59 percent) and blocked shots (5.6 bpg). She notched a rare triple-double on Nov. 6 against LSU-Eunice with 22 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks; and she scored in double figures in each of AC’s 32 games, charting double-doubles in 23 of those.
Williams earned a deserved reputation as a three-point sharpshooter, finishing fourth in the league after converting 36.6 percent of her attempts. She hit six three pointers against Panola College on March 2 and made four or more three pointers in seven games this season.
However, those numbers fail to account for her overall value as a playmaker and facilitator. Williams finished ninth overall in assists with 3.8 dishes per game and often was the leader on numerous Lady Roadrunner fast breaks.
The trio was part of an historic run for the Lady Roadrunners, who became the first Angelina College women’s basketball team to win the conference tournament championship and qualify for a berth in the national tournament.
The Lady Roadrunners, the fourth overall seed in the upcoming national tournament, begin their trek for a championship on Wednesday, March 20 against the winner of the Hutchinson/Western Nebraska game.
All games take place at the Rip Griffin Center on the Lubbock Christian University campus.
