Bucknell University Athletics
Molly Creamer Earns Third-Straight Patriot League Women's Basketball Player of the Year Award
3/5/2003 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2003
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell women's basketball player Molly Creamer (Mendham, N.J./West Morris Mendham) has been named the 2002-03 Patriot League Player of the Year for the third-straight season. It marks the first time in Patriot League history a player has garnered the award three times. Creamer was also a member of the All-League First-Team for the third-straight year.
In addition, junior Desire Almind (Blairstown, N.J./North Warren Regional) was named to the All-League Second-Team and freshman Lindsey Geosits (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) earned a spot on the All-Rookie team.
The all-league teams and major individual award winners were announced on Wednesday, March 5, on a teleconference held by the Patriot League in conjunction with the 2002-03 women's basketball tournament in Upper Marlboro, Md., March 7-9.
With her Patriot League Player of the Year selection, Creamer gives Bucknell only its third player of the year honor in the 13-year history of the league, all belonging to her. The 5-10 guard continued her assault on the Bucknell and Patriot League record books in her senior season, becoming both the conference and school's all-time leading scorer (men or women) throughout the course of the year. Creamer, who spent a large part of the regular-season as the nation's leading scorer, enters the Patriot League tournament ranked second in the country at 27.2 points per game, and is on pace to break the PL single-season record (26.1 - Amy O'Brien, Holy Cross, 1998). With a 22 point effort against Colgate in the final regular-season game, she became just the second player in league history, and the first Bison, to score over 700 points in a single-season (708). Her playmaking abilities often overlooked because she is such a scoring threat, Creamer is also leading the Patriot League in assists (5.92) for the third-straight year. Only one other player in NCAA history, Anja Bordt (St. Mary's, 1989-91), has led her conference in those two categories three-straight years.
On February 21, 2003, the co-captain broke her own school and conference single-game scoring record with 44 points on 16-of-21 shooting at Lafayette. In that contest, Creamer scored 31 of Bucknell's 36 second-half points, including the final 29 for the team, on her way to setting an Allan P. Kirby Sports Center scoring record. In January, she also set a new women's single-game scoring record in Colgate's Cotterell Court with 37 against the Raiders.
This season, Creamer has scored at least 20 points in 22 of 26 games, breaking her own record for 20-point games in a single-season, set last year (18). She has tallied over 30 in 10 games, also a school record, and the point guard has reached 40 points on two occasions, tying the Bucknell standard for a single-season. Creamer will leave Bucknell with her name in the top-3 on 10 all-time career lists, and as the holder of 16 school records. Entering the conference championships, she has also broken or had a share of 16 Patriot League records. With 2,411 career points, Creamer stands in 42nd on the NCAA all-time scoring list and is only the 47th player in NCAA history to record over 2,400 career points.
Almind is making her second career appearance on the second-team. The 2000-01 Rookie of the Year, Almind was a member of the all-league second-team in her first season. The 6-0 forward has suffered through an injury laden year, missing five games in the early part of the season with stress fractures in both legs. Despite missing those games, Almind still managed to finish the regular-season second on the team in scoring with 15.0 points per game. With the graduation of Bucknell's all-time leading rebounder, Vicki Quimby '02, Almind became more of a rebounding force for the Bison, pulling in a team-high 8.5 caroms each night out.
In Bucknell's season-opener against Penn State in the Preseason WNIT, Almind matched her career-high with 26 points and hauled in 10 rebounds for the first of nine double-doubles on the year. The junior has twice reached for a career-best 15 boards, most recently in BU's regular-season finale against Colgate. In fact, in the final eight games of the regular-season, Almind recorded five double-doubles and averaged 15.3 ppg and 10.5 rpg.
Also a menace on the defensive end, Almind is second on the squad in steals per game with 2.71. Since returning from her injury, she has had 10 games with at least three steals, including a career-high seven swipes in her first game back.
Geosits becomes the first Bison since Almind to earn a spot on the All-Rookie Team. The 5-7 point guard came into the Bucknell program and made an immediate impact. Thrown into the starting role in the season-opener due to the preseason injury of projected starter Laura Hatalsky, Geosits did not disappoint. She played 35 minutes in that first game against Penn State, handing out a team-best six assists.
A starter in every game this season, Geosits has stepped up her offense in the last few games. She recorded a career-best 11 points against Holy Cross on February 28, and has scored over her average of 4.8 ppg in five of the last eight games. Geosits is third on the team in assists (2.62) and fourth in steals (1.54). The rookie has recorded at least one steal in all but two games in her career.
At 12-14 overall and 7-7 in the Patriot League, the Orange and Blue enter the tournament as the fourth seed. Bucknell will face #5 Navy in its first-round game at the tournament on Friday, March 7, at 2:30 p.m. The winner of that game will then face the winner of the #1 Holy Cross/#8 Lafayette game in a semifinal match-up on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.
The 2002-03 All-Patriot League Teams follow:
| All-League First Team | ||||
| Name | Year | Position | School | Hometown/High School |
| Katie Macfarlane | Jr. | F | Army | Clarence, N.Y./Clarence |
| Molly Creamer | Sr. | G | Bucknell | Mendham, N.J./West Morris Mendham |
| Katie O'Keefe | Sr. | C | Holy Cross | Stratham, N.H./St. Thomas Aquinas |
| Maggie Fontana | So. | G | Holy Cross | Palatine, Ill./Fremd |
| Anne Tierney | Sr. | F/C | Lehigh | Hawthorne Woods, Ill./Lake Zurich |
| Courtney Davidson | Jr. | G | Navy | New Oxford, Pa./New Oxford |
| All-League Second Team | ||||
| Name | Year | Position | School | Hometown/High School |
| Chanel Hunt | So. | F | American | Raleigh, N.C./Ravenscroft |
| Desire Almind | Jr. | F | Bucknell | Blairstown, N.J./North Warren Regional |
| Emily Braseth | So. | F | Colgate | East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids |
| Colleen Fitzpatrick | Jr. | F | Lafayette | Springfield, Pa./Academy of Notre Dame |
| All-Rookie Team | ||||
| Name | Year | Position | School | Hometown/High School |
| Lindsey Geosits | Fr. | G | Bucknell | Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus |
| Megan Ballard | Fr. | G | Colgate | Atlanta, Ga./North Atlanta |
| Shannon Bush | Fr. | G | Holy Cross | Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East |
| Sarah Placek | Fr. | G | Holy Cross | Alexandria, Va./Hayfield |
| Kristin Doherty | Fr. | G | Lafayette | Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby |
| Dawn Gorynski | Fr. | G | Lehigh | Bayside, N.Y./St. Francis Prep |
Player-of-the-Year: Molly Creamer, Bucknell, Sr., Guard
Rookie-of-the-Year: Dawn Gorynski, Lehigh, Fr., Guard
Coach-of-the-Year: Bill Gibbons, Holy Cross (sixth award; 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997, 1991)
