EIU Award Winner List
 
Eastern Illinois women's basketball guard Kiyley Flowers has been named the EIU Female Newcomer of the Year after helping the Panthers post one of the best defensive seasons in program history.
 
Flowers, a transfer guard from Southeast Missouri, was named the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year becoming the second straight Panthers player to win that award.  She led the OVC in steals per game for a third straight season finishing the year ranked 16th in the NCAA in steals per game at 2.8.  She would finish the season with 76 steals with that number ranking tenth on the EIU single season list despite missing three games due to injury.  She posted the seventh most steals in a single game with eight at North Dakota State and added seven steals against No. 23 ranked Illinois. 
 
For the year Flowers averaged 6.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.  She finished third in the OVC in assists per game and fourth in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio.  Twice during the season, she passed out nine assists against Lindenwood and Southeast Missouri with an eight assist game at No. 18 Iowa State.  In the classroom Flowers was named an Academic All-District selection by College Sports Communicators.
 
As a team EIU led the Ohio Valley Conference in both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense.  The Panthers held opponents to 61.0 points per game during the season, the second lowest total in school history.  Opponents shot just 39.2 percent for the season against EIU, the ninth lowest total in school history. 
 
Flowers was one of three candidates for this year's award joined on the list by Colleen Bauer (soccer) and Alisha Frederick (softball).
 
EIU will continue the release of its end-of-year awards next week with the Male Newcomer of the Year (Monday), the Male & Female Athlete of the Year set for Tuesday & Wednesday with the Male & Female Athletic Director's Award set for Thursday and Friday.