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Basketball

Rydalch, Judkins, Purcell highlight WCC honors

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Senior Lexi Eaton Rydalch was named WCC Player of the Year. She also earned her third-straight first-team honor. (Natalie Stoker)

The BYU women's basketball team earned three of the four top West Coast Conference awards on Tuesday.

WCC all-time leading scorer Lexi Eaton Rydalch was been named Player of the Year, junior Kalani Purcell was named Newcomer of the Year and Jeff Judkins earned his first conference Coach of the Year honor since joining the WCC.

San Deigo's Maya Hood was named the Defensive Player of the Year.

'Our conference is a great conference and there are tons of good players so it's really special to be picked as the best,' Rydalch said.

Both Rydalch and Purcell were named to the 2015-16 All-WCC Women's Basketball First Team. Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher was named to the Second Team and Kylie Maeda was an All-WCC Honorable Mention.

BYU head coach Jeff Judkins was impressed with the honors his team garnered.

'I was more proud of that than me winning coach of the year and all the other awards,' Judkins said. 'To see that four of my top players were on the top 15 list, that means a lot.'

Judkins has led the Cougars to seven-straight 20-plus win seasons and their first WCC regular season title with a 16-2 record.

Rydalch was the conference-leading scorer with 24.6 points per game. Purcell led the league with 12.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Pulsipher was ranked fourth in steals and 3-point field goals made. Maeda led the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.488) and assist/turnover ratio (2.7).

The Cougars enter the WCC championships as the no. 1 seed and defending tournament champions. BYU plays their first game on Friday at noon PT in Las Vegas.