Warrensburg, Mo. (Mar. 7, 2001) -- The post-season honors have begun to roll in for the Central Missouri State University basketball Jennies as three players were honored by the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and one was named to the Daktronics All-South Central Region Team announced today.

Guard Lori Nichols (Jr., Nevada, Mo., N.H.S.) was named to the second team of both the all-conference and all-region squads, while guard Blanche Tucker (Sr., Fort Worth, Texas, Brewer H.S./Odessa College) earned honorable-mention all-league honors and guard-forward Jena Shackelford (Fr., Lenexa, Kan., Shawnee Mission Northwest H.S.) was chosen as freshman of the year in the MIAA.

In the conference's final regular-season statistics, Nichols was first in three-point field goals made per game (2.8), third in free-throw (.824) and three-point field-goal (.377) percentage, fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5:1), and seventh in scoring (14.9 ppg) and assists (3.6). This season she became the Jennies' all-time leader for three-point field goals made with 176 and the 17^th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for career scoring, finishing the campaign in 16^th place with 1,055 points. She was a first-team all-league pick as a sophomore after earning honorable-mention all-MIAA honors as a freshman.

Tucker leads the conference in free-throw accuracy with a school-record percentage of .873 and is 17^th in scoring (10.4 ppg), while Shackelford, who averaged 8.2 points per game on the year, is fourth in the final regular-season league stats in three-point field-goal percentage (.375) and fifth in three-point field goals made per game (1.8). Shackelford becomes the first Jennies' player to earn MIAA freshman-of-the-year accolades since the award was established in time for the 1993-94 campaign.

The Jennies saw their season come to an end on Mar. 2 with a 91-61 loss to second-ranked Emporia State University in a semifinal game of the MIAA Tournament in Emporia, Kan. They had reached to the semifinals with a 95-91 double-overtime win at home over Pittsburg State University in the first round on Feb. 28. They finished with a 19-9 overall record and an 11-7 league mark, good for fourth place in the conference standings.

The MIAA had only three other players named to the 10-member all-region team. Emporia State's Emily Bloss and Ricka McKee were first and second-team picks, respectively, while Southwest Baptist University's Carrie Long was also a second-team choice. The five first-team selections are now eligible for the Daktronics All-America Team, as chosen by sports information directors on the NCAA Division II level.