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SAN DIEGO - The All-CCAA women’s basketball teams and expanded major award winners, per the 13 league head coaches’ votes, have been released on Thursday ahead of the semifinal round of the 2019-20 CCAA Tournament at UC San Diego’s RIMAC Arena in La Jolla.
 
Regular-season co-champion UC San Diego’s Julia Macabuhay is the CCAA Most Valuable Player. The true sophomore guard out of Los Angeles is pouring in 17.6 points per game with 4.0 assists and 3.1 rebounds per contest. She is second in the conference in scoring and fifth in assists in just her second year of college basketball after her freshman effort was cut short. Macabuhay has played in all 28 games, drawing 16 starts, and is second in the CCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3) and fourth with her team-best .485 (176-363) field goal percentage. She shoots .402 (53-132) from long range and .798 (87-109) from the free throw line, and paces the Tritons with her 30 steals. UC San Diego is through to the CCAA tourney semifinals as the defending champion, and almost assuredly already in the field for the NCAA Championship. Macabuhay is the program’s third-straight CCAA MVP after former teammate Mikayla Williams and current assistant coach Dalayna Sampton, and the 10th overall in 20 years.
 
The very first CCAA Defensive Player of the Year award recipient is Sonoma State senior forward Ugochi Anudokem. The San Jose product was a double-double machine in her final collegiate campaign, posting a league-best 19 of them over 25 games played and 22 starts. Anudokem led the West Region and was tied for seventh nationally in the category, and also topped the CCAA in rebounding at 12.1 per game. She was ninth in blocked shots (0.7 per game) and fifth in scoring (13.2). Anudokem was also second on the team with her 28 steals.
 
The CCAA Newcomer of the Year is Ariana Harper, a redshirt freshman guard for Cal State Dominguez Hills. A Los Angeles native, she led the Toros and is 10th in the league in scoring at 12.8 points per game, largely off the bench while starting just three of 28 contests. Harper also posted 2.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals (17th in CCAA) each time out. CSUDH narrowly fell short of qualifying for the postseason, by a single game, even after finishing the campaign with three-consecutive victories. Harper was chosen to the All-CCAA Second Team. She is the third Toro to win the award, joining Neka Mixon (2008-09) and Imari Brown (2015-16).
 
The CCAA Freshman of the Year distinction goes to Cal State LA rookie Nicole Flennaugh. From Portland, Ore., and Westview High School, she averaged 12.5 points per game to place second on the team scoring chart and 11th on the league’s. Flennaugh was one of just two Golden Eagles to start all 28 contests, pacing them in minutes. She grabbed 2.8 rebounds per outing and added 80 assists, 22 steals and four blocks. Flennaugh ranks second in the conference with her .382 (66-173) three-point shooting percentage, and third in three-point field goals per game (2.4). She picked up All-CCAA honorable mention, and is the second Golden Eagle to earn the freshman award, the other being Shanna Demus back in 2003-04.
 
Renee Jimenez is the CCAA Coach of the Year after leading Cal State San Marcos to a share of the entire department’s first regular-season league title in her fifth season in charge. In just the ninth year of the fledgling program’s history, Jimenez directed the Cougars to a second-straight CCAA Tournament berth in their fifth season as a conference member and third of postseason eligibility. Cal State San Marcos earned the top seed for the CCAA Tournament by virtue of its first two triumphs over 2018-19 CCAA regular-season and tournament victor UC San Diego, this year’s co-champion with the Cougars. Jimenez’s club is through to Friday’s semifinals, and is a virtual lock for a first-ever NCAA Division II West Regional bid at 24-4 overall and on a program-record 10-game win streak. CSUSM finished 8-18 just two years ago. Jimenez was previously the CCAA Coach of the Year while at Cal State Monterey Bay in 2010-11.
 
Joining Anudokem and Macabuhay on the All-CCAA First Team are twin sisters Tyla Turner and Tyra Turner of UC San Diego and Humboldt State, respectively, Stephanie Custodio of Cal State San Marcos, HSU’s Alexia Thrower, the Cal Poly Pomona duo of Jackie Ricketson and Kasey Smit, Chico State’s Maddy Wong and Cal State LA’s Sydney Bordonaro.
 
Thrower, the 2018-19 CCAA Newcomer of the Year, is a repeat first-teamer, alongside Anudokem and teammate Tyra Turner. Tyla Turner was a first-team pick in 2017-18 as that season’s CCAA Newcomer of the Year while at HSU. She and Ricketson have accounted for two of the 16 triple-doubles in Division II women’s basketball in 2019-20.
 
All 13 CCAA programs were represented among the 34 total honorees.
 
Friday’s CCAA Tournament semifinals are slated for 5:30 p.m. between second-seeded host UC San Diego and sixth-seeded Stanislaus State, and 8 p.m between No. 1 seed Cal State San Marcos and fifth-seeded Cal State East Bay. The games can be watched for free on ESPN3.
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