NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Iona College senior point guard Damika Martinez was one of 16 players selected to the Dawn Staley Award Mid-Season Watch List, the Phoenix Club of Philadelphia announced Monday.
The Dawn Staley Award is given to the most outstanding collegiate guard in the country; a player who exemplifies the skills that Staley possessed during her career; ball handling, scoring, ability to distribute the basketball and the will to win.
Martinez (Meriden, CT) is averaging 24.9 points per game this season for the Gaels, good for second overall in the nation. She is shooting 47.4% from the field, 41.9% from behind the arc, and is averaging 2.7 three-point field goals per game.
Martinez, the nation’s active leading scorer, has registered 2,388 points over her standout four seasons with the Gaels, and sits just 80 points away from breaking the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference scoring record (Patty Stoffey, Loyola, 2,467). She currently sits 85th all-time on the Division I scoring ledger, and already holds the MAAC record for three-pointers, set on Dec. 29 at ETSU.
Martinez is the nation’s active leader in field goals with 870, and also ranks in the top ten among active players in career scoring average (20.6 ppg), three-point field goals (293) and three-point field goal percentage (40.9%).
Martinez averaged 24.9 points per game for the Gaels a season ago, eighth overall in the country. Martinez’s efforts earned her the MAAC Player of the Year award for the second consecutive season, along with AP All-American Honorable Mention and All-Met Player of the Year recognitions. She was also named to the All-MAAC and All-Met First Teams and All-ECAC Second Team.
Staley, the current women’s basketball head coach at the University of South Carolina, was a two-time National Player of the Year, and three-time All-American at the University of Virginia. She enjoyed a standout professional career in the ABL and WNBA, and was a three-time Olympic gold medalist. She was enshrined in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012, and also enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September, 2013.
The winner will be announced during Final Four weekend, with the award ceremony set to be held on Friday, April 17, 2015 at the Union League of Philadelphia.