Tiffany Mitchell Named Third-Team All-America
April 1, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina sophomore guard Tiffany Mitchell earned Third-Team All-America honors from the Associated Press today, making her the first Gamecock to hold All-America status since 2003. Junior forward Aleighsa Welch was named honorable mention by the AP for her standout season as well. The duo helped the Gamecocks to the most productive regular season in school history and the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
The SEC’s lone representative on the three All-America teams, Mitchell finished her breakout sophomore campaign averaging 15.5 points, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals. She is 10th in the SEC in scoring, 11th in assists and seventh in steals. The SEC Player of the Year was the team’s top scorer 13 times and scored in double figures 31 times in 34 games. A finalist for the Wade Trophy and the Dawn Staley Award, Mitchell had a hand in 31.8 percent of the Gamecocks’ offense this season between her scoring and assists, a number that rose to 36.4 percent in NCAA Tournament action. In SEC play, she was the only player to be in the league standings in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.
Welch continued the expansion of her skills and resume this season with First-Team All-SEC and WBCA All-Region 3 honors. She ranks 14th in the nation and second in the SEC with a .574 field goal percentage, which ranks seventh in school history. She shot at least 50.0 percent from the field in all but seven games this season, just two of which were below 40.0 percent accuracy. She posted nine double-doubles en route to finishing 17th in the SEC in scoring (13.7 ppg) and ninth in rebounding (7.6 rpg). She scored in double figures 30 times in 34 outings. Welch became just the 11th Gamecock all-time to record 1,000 points and 700 rebounds in her career. She is the seventh of that group to do it in fewer than four seasons, only two of whom have played in the SEC era.
Mitchell and Welch guided the Gamecocks to the program’s first SEC regular-season championship and first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed. En route to its second NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in the last three seasons, South Carolina’s 29 victories were just one shy of the school-record 30 set by the 1979-80 squad. The Gamecocks return 11 of their 12 players from this season and add the fourth-ranked recruiting class in the nation for 2014-15.
2014 AP All-America First Team
Chiney Ogwumike, Stanford
Odyssey Sims, Baylor
Breanna Stewart, Connecticut
Kayla McBride, Notre Dame
Alyssa Thomas, Maryland
2014 AP All-America Second Team
Bria Hartley, Connecticut
Jewell Loyd, Notre Dame
Shoni Schimmel, Louisville
Stefanie Dolson, Connecticut
Jordan Hooper, Nebraska
2014 AP All-America Third Team
Tiffany Mitchell, South Carolina
Maggie Lucas, Penn State
Tricia Liston, Duke
Natalie Achonwa, Notre Dame
Elizabeth Williams, Duke
2014 AP All-America Honorable Mention
Jillian Alleyne, Oregon; Rachel Banham, Minnesota; Tiffany Bias, Oklahoma State; Brittany Boyd, California; Asya Bussie, West Virginia; Hallie Christofferson, Iowa State; Jerica Coley, Florida International; Diamond DeShields, North Carolina; Aaryn Ellenberg, Oklahoma; Markeisha Gatling, NC State; Chelsea Gray, Duke; Dearica Hamby, Wake Forest; Jennifer Hamson, BYU; Isabelle Harrison, Tennessee; Bria Holmes, West Virginia; Natasha Howard, Florida State; Brittany Hrynko, DePaul; Moriah Jefferson, Connecticut; Jamie Kaplan, Tulane; Jessica Kuster, Rice; Samantha Logic, Iowa; Valencia McFarland, Mississippi; Tyaunna Marshall, Georgia Tech; Damika Martinez, Iona; Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut; Jennifer O’Neill, Kentucky; Haiden Palmer, Gonzaga; Ebony Rowe, Middle Tennessee; Jennifer Schlott, Utah State; Meighan Simmons, Tennessee; Rachel Theriot, Nebraska; Kayla Thornton, UTEP; Courtney Walker, Texas A&M; Aleighsa Welch, South Carolina
