Marquelle Dent Tabbed as MW Preseason Player of the Year

The Wyoming Cowgirls have the Preseason Mountain West Player of the Year for a third consecutive year. Senior Marquelle Dent earned the accolade Wednesday.

The Mountain West released its Preseason Poll and All-Conference team for the upcoming 2015-16 women’s basketball season. Voting was conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches and select media from around the conference.

Dent was named First Team All-MW and to the MW All-Defensive team after her junior season. In addition, she earned WBCA honorable mention All-America recognition. Dent averaged 16.8 points and a league-leading 6.4 assists per game during the 2014-15 season.

In a statement released from the University of Wyoming, head coach Joe Legerski said,

“I’m happy for Marquelle. The amount of time and effort she has put into her game reflects on her selection as the MW Preseason Player of the Year. The challenge now is for the team to help her realize the honor. History tells us the player of the year honor goes to the player of the team that wins the conference championship.”

Joining Dent on the Preseason All-MW team by Boise State’s Brooke Pahukoa, Colorado State’s Ellen Nystrom, New Mexico’s Khadijah Shumpert and Utah State’s Funda Nakkasoglu.

The Lobos’ Jannon Otto has been named Preseason Freshman of the Year, while transfers Stephanie Schmid (Nevada) and Dezz Ramos (San José State) share the Preseason Newcomer of the Year honor.

As for the Cowgirls as a team, they were picked to finish seventh in the league. Wyoming earned 125 total points in voting.

2014 and 2015 MW regular season champion Colorado State was chosen as the favorite in the preseason poll. The Rams received 12 first place votes and 237 total points in the balloting.

New Mexico came in second. The Lobos garnered seven first place votes and 221 points. MW tournament champion Boise State was third in the poll. The Broncos had six first place votes and 215 total points.

Fresno State, UNLV and San Diego State were picked fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. After UW in seventh came San Jose State, Utah State, Nevada and Air Force.