Feb. 27, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - Senior guard Jami Montagnino was named First Team All Conference USA while guards D'Aundra Henry and Ashley Langford each earned Third Team All C-USA honors on Tuesday. Henry also earned a spot on the C-USA All-Defensive Team.

Montagnino, who earned All-Academic honors on Monday, leads Tulane with 15.2 points per game. She is currently the program's 15th all-time scorer, with 1,061 points and owns Tulane's top single season and career free throw marks.

The 5-8 guard from Baton Rouge (Christian Life Academy) currently ranks fifth in the NCAA and leads C-USA in free throw accuracy, with a .903 (102-of-113) percentage. Earlier this year, she was named Sugar Bowl Student-Athlete of the Month for January and C-USA Player of the Week on Jan. 15, and was named to both the FIU Thanksgiving Classic and Tulane DoubleTree Classic All-Tournament Teams.

D'Aundra Henry earned Third Team and Defensive Team honors

Henry, a senior guard named to the Third Team and All-Defensive Team, is second on the Green Wave in scoring at an 11.9 clip, including an average of 20.2 points in her final five games. Her late-season surge put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career on her senior day. She is the 19th member of Tulane's 1,000-point club with 1,016 points.

She also ranks 26th in the nation in steals with 2.9 per game. Her 82 steals this season have helped the Wave place seventh in the NCAA as a team in steals, and the Houma (Ellender High School) native is third in Tulane's history in steals. Earlier this season, Henry was named the MVP of the FIU Thanksgiving Classic, as she scored 26 points with six steals as Tulane won the tournament.

Ashley Langford was tabbed Third Team All-Conference USA

Sophomore guard Ashley Langford joins Henry on the Third Team. Langford, an All-Rookie team member and Freshman All-American by the Women's Basketball News last season, broke her own Tulane single-season assist record. As a freshman, she handed out 171 assists in 27 games and through 29 games this season has 186 assists. She ranks ninth in APG in the NCAA this season, second in C-USA with 6.4 per game.

The 5-5 native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, tied the single-game record at Tulane for with 14 assists (a record she set last year), and owns nine of the top 12 single game assist marks. Her 114 assists in C-USA regular season play were a conference record for sophomores. She also was named MVP of the Tulane DoubleTree Classic when she grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds in the final against Texas-Arlington for her first career double-double with points and rebounds. She has four total double-doubles this season, three of the points-assists variety.

The three guards helped Tulane (24-5) to its first outright C-USA regular season title. The Green Wave shared the crown in 1997 and 1999, but with the chance to earn sole possession of the regular season title, Montagnino scored 17 points in Saturday's win over Tulsa to finish with a 13-3 C-USA mark. Tulane also set a school record for wins in the regular season with 24 entering the C-USA tournament,

The Green Wave is the number one seed in this Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship, March 1-4 in Tulsa, Okla. Tulane has a bye under the quarterfinals and will play at 1 p.m. on Friday against the winner of #9-seed Houston and #8-seed Marshall. The semifinals (Tulane would play at 2:30 p.m. CT) on Saturday will air live on CSTV, and Sunday's championship game will air live on ESPN2 at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Individual C-USA awards will be announced Wednesday.

All-Conference USA Teams
FIRST TEAM
Carmen Guzman - UAB
Tye Jackson - Houston
Jami Montagnino - Tulane
Lauren Neaves - Rice
Jillian Robbins - Tulsa

SECOND TEAM
Janielle Dodds - SMU
Cherie Mills - East Carolina
Jasmine Young - East Carolina
Modupe Ishola - Marshall
Diamond Rogers - UAB

THIRD TEAM
D'Aundra Henry - Tulane
Kendra Reed - Southern Miss
Jareica Hughes - UTEP
Amber Eugene - Southern Miss
Ashley Langford - Tulane

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Jillian Robbins - Tulsa
D'Aundra Henry - Tulane
Lauren Neaves - Rice
Jasmine Young - East Carolina
Jareica Hughes - UTEP