RICHARDSON, Texas--The University of Texas at Tyler women’s basketball players, senior Kasey Buggs (Lake Dallas, Texas) and freshman Melissa Thomas (Austin, Texas), have received two of the top East Division honors in this year’s American Southwest Conference women’s basketball post-season awards.

Buggs was named East Division Player of the Year, as well as being named to the ASC All-Conference team and ASC All-East Division first team.

Meanwhile, Thomas was named as the ASC East Co-Freshman of the year, along with Tillisha Givens of Louisiana College. Buggs and Thomas are just two of five Patriots to receive post season honors.

The 2007-2008 season marked the third time in the program’s five year history that the Patriots claimed the East Division crown, as they ended the year with a 17-9 overall record and a 14-6 record in the ASC East.

Buggs finished her senior season by averaging 15.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Buggs will end her career at UT Tyler as the Patriots’ second all-time leading scorer with 1,219 points and as the Patriots’ all-time leading rebounder with 675 rebounds. Buggs is now the second player in UT Tyler women’s basketball history to receive East Division Player of the Year honors. The first Patriot to receive the honor was current assistant coach, Sarah Stanley.

Melissa Thomas ended her inaugural season as a Patriot by leading her team with 16.8 points per game, shooting 82.5 percent from the free throw line, and 42 percent from 3-point range. Thomas amassed 438 total points on the year, the third-highest single season total in program history. The amount also places Thomas sixth on the school’s career scoring list in just her first year as a Patriot. Thomas’ award marks the first time since the 2003-2004 season that a Patriot has received the East Division Freshman of the Year honor. Thomas was also named to the ASC East All-Freshman team

Sophomore Alyssa Ploof (Plano, Texas) earned her first post-season honor by being named to the ASC East Honorable Mention team. Ploof averaged 3.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Ploof was second in the ASC in assists on the year.

Sophomore Becky Taylor (New Caney, Texas) was the only UT Tyler player to receive defensive honors, as she was named to the East Division All-Defensive team. Taylor averaged 7.6 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game during the 2007-2008 season.

Freshman Lindsay Eaton (Austin, Texas) rounded out the Patriots receiving post-season honors by joining high school and college teammate Melissa Thomas on the East Division All-Freshman team. Eaton averaged 12.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in her first year with UT Tyler.

The Patriots will graduate just one senior from this year’s squad and are on track to return the other 11 members of this year’s East Division Championship team.