Basketball may be a team sport, but individual honors are an opportunity to recognize the contribution of key players to their team’s success. As the Big Ten regular season came to a close last weekend, players for the Michigan women’s basketball team took home some hardware.
For the first time in her career, junior guard Laila Phelia received All-Big Ten First-Team honors, garnering votes from both the coaches and the media. She became the eighth Wolverine to do so after being named to the second team last year and the freshman team the year prior. She started 29 games — missing one contest due to injury — and scored in double figures during 25 of those. Phelia leads Michigan in points per game, averaging 16 alongside 3.6 rebounds per contest.
And in conference matchups, her play was even better.
When competing against Big Ten opponents, Phelia’s averages reach 17.2 points per game off a 46.2% clip from the field, all while leading the conference in minutes per game with 36.6. In addition, she reached the 1,000-point mark for her career in a contest against Wisconsin, a testament to her consistent play throughout her time as a Wolverine. She earned the first double-double of her career in a win over Northwestern on Feb. 24, garnering 16 points and 10 rebounds alongside seven assists.
“Laila was a difference maker,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said Feb. 24. “She was obviously phenomenal tonight, close to a triple-double, 10 rebounds. We were able to get out in transition, she led that break. I mean, she was the one that ignited that fire and got those paint touches and made some great extra passes.”
Phelia notched some of those assists by swinging the ball to graduate guard Lauren Hansen, who earned an All-Big Ten honorable mention by both the coaches and media after being one of just two players to start all 30 games for the Wolverines. The true point guard averaged 11.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists while playing 28.1 minutes per game. She scored in double figures 20 times, while ranking second on Michigan in both assists and steals, recording 63 and 38, respectively.
But it’s not just the amount of points that Hansen scores, it’s the timeliness of them.
“(Hansen’s) experience shines through in those moments,” Barnes Arico said Sunday after beating Purdue. “She’s a kid that has been on this stage so many times in her career, that this doesn’t frazzle her. She wants the ball in her hand, she has the ability to make big plays. And I think she showed that again tonight.”
In big moments, Hansen comes alive, shooting more accurately with a hand in her face than she does without. When the shot or game clock is running down, the Wolverines typically give the ball to Hansen and let her go to work. Looking to shoot, she carves her way through defenses with her signature crossover, step-back jumper.
Senior forward Cameron Williams also received conference honors, named Michigan’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient. Williams played in all 30 games and started in 15, leading the team with 4.8 rebounds per game. She recorded two double-doubles this season on Nov. 14 against Oakland and Jan. 13 against the Badgers, with Phelia being the only other player to achieve this statistic, doing so over Northwestern.
While Michigan’s season hasn’t gone as smoothly as it hoped, Phelia and Hansen have consistently shown that they are among the best in the Big Ten. And heading into the conference tournament on Thursday, the Wolverines will need their star players to display the talents that earned them these honors.