ROCK HILL, S.C. – Braelyn Wykle earned first-team honors and Tori Rutherford was tabbed as an all-freshman team selection by the South Atlantic Conference announced by the league on Thursday.
Wykle brings her career hardware count to 30 joining Leah Jackson (1989-93) as the only players in program history to be a four-time first-team All-SAC selection. On Feb. 11, the junior scored a career-high 44 becoming the second player in school history and sixth in SAC history to score 2,000 points for a career. Burying seven triples, she passed Tatum Burstrom for the career record for three-pointers while finishing three points shy of the school and league record for points in a game. The guard has 2,131 points for her career and will enter her final campaign needing 203 points to become the school's all-time leading scorer. Among active Division II players, she is second with a career scoring average of 19.2 points per game, a mark that is No. 15 across all NCAA divisions, sixth in total points, fourth in career free-throw percentage with an 86.9 percent mark and seventh in made triples.
The Greeneville, Tenn. native has been in double figures 27 times with 13 20-point efforts and four games of at least 30 leading the club in scoring 19 times and in assists on eight occasions. She has three-plus assists on 12 occasions and three or more steals six times. In the second semester, the league's leading scorer averaged 23 points per game (370 total) with nine games of at least 20 in 16 outings.
Nationally, Wykle ranked fourth in the country making 92.1 percent of her foul shots, 12th in scoring average at 20.9, 11th in field goals with 215, 10th in three-point percentage with 43.5, and 24th in three-pointers made with 74. The junior made 26 consecutive foul shots between Feb. 11 and Feb. 25, the second-best by a player in school history with the school record of 29 in row set by Vickee Kazee during the 1981-82 season. Since Jan. 7, Wykle went 51-for-54, 94 percent, at the charity stripe.
The guard earned CSC Academic All-District honors for the third year in a row touting a 3.59 GPA in nursing being one of the six players in school history to earn the laurel in her career and the only player to do so three times.
Rutherford is the third Lady Eagle rookie in the past four years to earn a slot on the all-freshman team and 14th in the history of the program to be on the five-player roster. After being limited to seven games in 2021-22, the redshirt-freshman played in 29 games this year tallying six points, three rebounds and two assists per game.
The Rutledge, Tenn. native scored in double figures five times including the second game of the year when she scored 11 points on five of eight shooting at USC Aiken. In the regular-season finale against Coker on Feb. 25, Rutherford scored a career-high 20 points going 6-for-8 from the field adding seven rebounds and five assists.
Leading the team in assists five times, the guard handed out at least three helpers six times. She showcased her defensive prowess with 36 steals with five games of at least three pilfers adding 15 shot blocks. Her game took a step forward against the league posting seven points per game shooting 46 percent from the field in SAC contests.
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