Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

How do you top winning your conference player of the year award as a sophomore?

Do it again as a junior. And become the league’s best defender too.

UCA forward Megan Herbert was named the Southland Conference top player for the second consecutive year. She also picked up recognition as the top defensive player in helping the Sugar Bears (24-5) to a Southland regular season title.

Herbert, the first two-time player of the year since 1998, averaged 17.6 points, 11.1 rebounds with a 52.9 field goal percentage. Her 17 double-doubles led the Southland and ranked fifth nationally.

Defensively, Herbert was a force as well. She blocked 21 shots and led the team with 31 steals as UCA held opponents to 35.3 percent shooting and limited 12 opponents to 50 or fewer points.

"It's a big deal for her to receive the defensive award as well," Coach Matt Daniel said. "She helps us get stops in a lot of ways. If you look where we rank nationally on the defensive end of the floor and statistically within our league, I think it just as easily could have gone to one of a couple other people on our team. Given the success she's had, it's just another step in saying she's doing what she needs to do to help this team succeed."

Herbert was far from the only award winner from UCA.

Daniel was named Southland Coach of the Year. He also won  in 2010 while UCA has won at least 21 games for three consecutive seasons.

Senior guard Nakeia Guiden was a third-team all-league pick. Destinee Rogers, also a senior guard, was honorable mention.

Guiden averaged 10.9 points and 3.3 assists. Rogers led the Southland with a 2.5-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and averaged 3.2 assists per game.

"You see a lot of individual accolades for a lot of team members, and it's a true testament to the type of team we are and the belief system we have," Daniel said. "We firmly believe that if you take care of your team, the team will take care of the individual. As a team we've had tremendous success, and now we are seeing some of that reflected in these individual awards. I'm happy to be included in that, but I'm just happy to be a part of this program."

Herbert and the Sugar Bears enter the Southland Conference tournament as the No. 1 seed. They face No. 8 seed Nichols State tonight at 6 p.m.

 UCA Media Relations contributed to this report.