Henderson on Pair of Late Season Positional Watch Lists

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina women’s basketball senior Destanni Henderson has earned spots on the Nancy Lieberman Award and The Dawn Staley Award watch lists. The Lieberman Award, which recognizes the top point guard in women’s college basketball, narrowed its list to 10, while The Dawn Staley Award Late Season Watch list includes 17 candidates for the award that recognizes the most outstanding collegiate guard in the country who exemplifies the skills that Staley possessed during her career.
 
Henderson has been a steadying force for the top-ranked Gamecocks throughout the season. Her 4.4 assists per game are fifth in the SEC and include nine games of five or more. She is third on the team in scoring at 11.3 points per game on a team-best 40.5 percent shooting from 3-point range with 11 double-figure scoring games. Henderson’s 3.6 rebounds per game have her ranked second among Gamecock guards in that category. In just her second season as a full-time starter, Henderson’s 132 career 3-pointers ranks 10th in program history, and she is third in school history with 200 career assists in SEC games.
 
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association will narrow the current watch list to five players who will then be presented to Ms. Lieberman and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee in March to select a winner. That winner will be presented at a to-be-determined date along with the other four members of the Women’s Starting Five – the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard Award, the Cheryl Miller Small Forward Award, the Katrina McClain Power Forward Award and the Lisa Leslie Center of the year Award – in addition to the Men’s Starting Five.
 
The Phoenix Club of Philadelphia will announce the finalists for The Dawn Staley Award in mid-March with the winner named the weekend of the NCAA Women’s Final Four. The award will be presented on Thu., Apr. 7.
 
No. 1/1 South Carolina is back in action this week with a pair of road games. The Gamecocks travel to Kentucky for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thu., Feb. 10, on ESPN before heading to border rival Georgia for a noon tipoff on Sun., Feb. 13, on ESPN2.
 
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and the team’s social media accounts (@GamecockWBB) for the most up-to-date information on the women’s basketball season.