LAS VEGAS, Nev. – University of New Mexico freshman guard Cherise Beynon on Monday earned All-Mountain West honors, the conference announced.
Beynon filled the stat sheet for the Lobos. She averaged 8.7 points per game overall and 9.6 points per game in conference play to rank 24th in the MW. Her 5.9 rebounds in the MW ranks 15th. She tied for sixth in steals at 1.8 per game and had 60 pass deflections. She also averaged 1.9 assists per game.
Beynon scored a career-high 18 points in UNM’s 67-40 victory over MW regular-season champion Colorado State on Feb. 11 in WisePies Arena, aka, “The Pit.”
Beynon led the team in rebounding 11 times in 2014-15 and pulled down seven or more rebounds in 10 games. She had a career-high 10 rebounds in UNM’s 63-60 victory over UNLV on Jan. 21 in The Pit.
The Mountain West began naming an All-Freshman Team last season. Beynon, a native of Las Vegas, Nev., is the first freshman to earn a newcomer-type award since Dionne Marsh in 2004-05. Beynon is the first player from Canyon Springs High School to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship.
Coach Yvonne Sanchez, whose Lobos were picked to finish ninth, earned Mountain West Coach of the Year honors. She is the second Lobo coach to win the award; Don Flanagan won his only Coach of the Year Award in 2004-05.
The other award winner Monday was senior Antiesha Brown earning first-team All-MW honors, the first Lobo to earn first-team distinction since Caroline Durbin in 2011-12. Brown also was named to the MW All-Defensive Team, becoming the first Lobo since Porche Torrance to make that team.
The Lobos, the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, will play in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinals against the winner of the No. 7-seed San Diego State-No. 10-seed Nevada game tonight.