HOPEWELL, N.J. – Portland Pilots women's basketball forward Alex Fowler has officially been named to the preseason watch list for the 2023 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. She is the first Pilot to get named to the watch list since the award was created back in 2020.
The preseason list consists of 25 players from 25 schools and 13 conferences. To qualify, a player must play for one of the 26 conferences deemed to be "mid-major," meaning not belonging to the six major college basketball conferences: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC. The list will be whittled down to 10 players in February and five finalists in early March before a winner is announced sometime in late March.
Fowler has put together a stellar three years of basketball on The Bluff. She has made the All-WCC First Team each of the last three years, being the first Pilot since Laikenn Dillente in 2010 to make the team three times and the first to make it three times in a row since Kristin Hepton in 1999. Last season, she averaged 17.1 points and eight rebounds per contest, leading the WCC in field-goal percentage (53.1%) and ranking third in field goals made (199), rebounds per game and total rebounds (249), fourth in total points (530) and fifth in points per game.
The Townsville, Australia native was one of just 10 players in the nation to average 17 points and eight rebounds a game on at least 50% shooting last year. She is also one of just six players to have totaled at least 450 points and 200 total rebounds in each of the last three seasons. Heading into this year, she is just 392 points away from becoming the all-time leader in points among Pilots who only played Division I basketball and just 53 rebounds from being the all-time leader in rebounds at the Division I level. She has 1,561 career points and 704 total rebounds.
The Pilots are coming off a very successful 2021-22 season that saw them go 20-11 overall and finish fourth in the WCC. It was their fifth 20-win season as a Division I program and their second under head coach Michael Meek. The Pilots earned a berth to the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) for the first time since 2009 and advanced to the second round after defeating the Colorado State Rams at the Chiles Center. It was their first ever WNIT victory and home playoff victory.
Portland tips things off with an exhibition showdown against the Warner Pacific Knights. The two teams will play on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. Check PortlandPilots.com for live stats and video options.
