Thursday, March 21, 2024
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. –  After being named the GNAC Player of the Year and leading Montana State Billings to the finals of the NCAA West Regional, Kola Bad Bear has now been named first team All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association with Western Washington’s Brooke Walling and Central Washington’s Sunny Huerta also named honorable mentions.

The All-American honor is the first of Bad Bear’s career and comes in a season where she also earned GNAC Newcomer of the Year honors after transferring from Division I Montana State. The senior forward led the Yellowjackets to their second regular season title in program history with 16.2 points per game and started all 35 games of the 2023-24 campaign. She is the first Yellowjacket to earn selection to the WBCA All-America team since current MSUB associate head coach Alisha Breen earned the honor in 2018 and is just the sixth player from the conference to earn selection overall.

Bad Bear’s scoring pace put her seventh in the conference while her efficient 51.9% shooting from the field put her sixth in the league. Her production was similarly strong in the postseason where she and teammate Dyauni Boyce both averaged 14.8 points per game to lead the team. Along with her offensive numbers, Bad Bear was stellar on defense, 5.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks per game to help the team establish a GNAC-leading defense that allowed just 58.9 points per game on average.

Both Walling and Huerta were key figures for their respective teams throughout the season and into the postseason, with Walling leading the Vikings to the semifinals of the NCAA West Region Championships and Huerta guiding the Wildcats to the semifinals of the GNAC Championships in Ellensburg.

On the year, Walling led Western Washington and ranked sixth in the league with 16.5 points per game while shooting a conference-leading 58.3% from the field. She was arguably the best rebounding player in the conference as well, finishing her season with a GNAC-leading 15 double doubles to rank 11th in Division II while pulling in nine rebounds per game to tie for the conference lead. Walling also played some of her best basketball in the postseason, earning selection as the GNAC Championships MVP for a second consecutive year for her role in the Vikings’ second-straight title. The All-American honorable mention is the second of Walling’s career.

Huerta spent all season as one of the top-scoring and most reliable players in the league, finishing the season second in the league with both 17.9 points per game and 36 minutes of game time per contest. Along with her own scoring ability, Huerta was a key offensive distributor for CWU, finishing the season leading the team and ranking seventh in the GNAC with 3.5 assists per game. The All-American honorable mention is the first of Huerta’s career.