SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- University of New England junior guard Kelley Paradis (Newport, Maine) has been named The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) Defensive Player of the Year, in voting conducted by the league's 14 head coaches. TCCC Commissioner Gregg Kaye announced the women's basketball all-conference team and the season's award winners this evening.

Additionally, Paradis received a spot on the first team all-TCCC, while senior guard Carrie Bunnell (Barnet, Vt.) and junior forward Margo Russell (Madison, Maine) garnered two of the nods for the second team all-TCCC.

Leading the league's most potent offense at a 16.6 points-per-game clip is Paradis, who finds herself on the first team for the second straight year. The 5-10 guard ranks fifth among conference players in scoring and second in field goal percentage (55.9%), and has reached double figures in all 13 TCCC contests. Just like UNE tops the conference in team scoring defense (51.1), Paradis heads up the individual steals category, picking up 3.8 thefts per game. She also ranks sixth in TCCC action with an average of 1.5 blocks per match, and recorded a personal high of five rejections against Colby-Sawyer.

On February 16 against Gordon College, Paradis became the 19th player in UNE history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for her career. Four days earlier, teammate Carrie Bunnell reached the same milestone.

The Barnet, Vt. native makes her third appearance on the all-TCCC team, and stands in ninth position on the conference scoring list (14.0). She ranks fourth in both three-point field goal percentage (42.3) and treys per game (2.3). During a three-game stretch near the middle of the league schedule, Bunnell averaged 22.7 points by connecting on 59 percent (24 of 41) of her shot attempts and 70 percent (14 of 20) of her tries from deep (including a career-high six at Wentworth), and earned the TCCC Player of the Week honor during that time.

Margo Russell finished the TCCC regular-season averaging 12.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game -- a figure that ranks her fourth in the league. With an assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0) that leads the conference, the 5-10 forward also boasts one of the top 10 free throw percentages (80.3%). In a late-season win at Colby-Sawyer, she poured in a career-best 26 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists, helping UNE secure a three-point victory.

Big Blue takes to the court Tuesday as the TCCC Championship commences with the quarterfinal round of matches. The Nor'easters host seventh-seeded Western New England College at 7 p.m.


For a complete listing of all the major award winners and all-conference teams, click here.