Sabrina Ionescu, a senior guard from the University of Oregon, was named the Honda Sport Award winner for Basketball as announced today by Chris Voelz, Executive Director of THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA).
The CWSA has been balancing the recognition of deserving honorees with these unusual times as collegiate athletics have come to a halt. Given the nationwide pandemic, the CWSA will be announcing the winter honorees, the 2020 Inspiration Award finalists and winner and recently announced the cancellation of the 2020 Collegiate Women Sports Awards event that was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in June.
Ionescu was chosen by a vote of administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Finalists included Dana Evans (Louisville), Tyasha Harris (South Carolina) and Aari McDonald (Arizona).
Ionescu, a senior guard from Walnut Creek, Calif., was most recently named the 2020 Wade Trophy winner after capturing the honor in 2019 and is the first-ever player from Oregon to win the Naismith Tophy. She is also a two-time Nancy Lieberman Award winner and the 2020 AP, USBWA and ESPN.com Player of the Year.
The three-time Pac-12 Player of the Year led the nation in assists (9.1 apg) and added 17.5 ppg. She matched her own NCAA single-season record with eight triple-doubles to extend her all-time record for both women and men to 26 and is the first player in NCAA history to reach 2,000 career points (2,562), 1,000 assists (1,091) and 1,000 rebounds (1,040). She scored in double figures 32 times in 33 games and posted a career-high 37-point performance against No. 3 Stanford.
She closes her storied career at No. 4 on the NCAA women's basketball all-time assists list and is the Oregon all-time leader in points, assists, three-point field goals (329) and double-figure scoring games (134).
Honda Sport Award winners will be presented with the honor during on-campus presentations.
The CWSA, in its 44th year, honors the nation’s top NCAA women athletes recognizing superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3.4 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs at the institutions.