Azusa Pacific guard Paige Uyehara is the motor that makes her Cougar team run on all cylinders, and the coaches in the PacWest certainly know it.

For the second year in a row, Uyehara was selected as the Pacific West Conference Preseason Player of the Year, voted on by the league's coaches. The 5-foot-7 playmaker was a unanamous selection, minus the vote of her own coach TJ Hardemann, who is bound by voting rules to not vote for his own players. 

Uyehara, a three-year starter, has helped lead her APU team to back-to-back conference titles. Last season, she averaged 14.1 points per game and 4.8 assists, while nailing 62 three-point shots. The San Jose native has 1,186 points in her career and 415 assists. 

Uyehara is joined on the All-PacWest Preseason Team by her teammate Molly Whitmore, Dominican's Keyonee Neal, Point Loma's Tavia Rowell, Concordia's Teagan Thurman and Laila Walker of Biola. 

Molly Whitmore is a fifth-year Cougar who has twice been selected Third Team All-PacWest. She has 1,172 career points and 627 rebounds, averaging 11.1 and 5.7 respectively last year. 

Keyonee Neal was the 2022-23 PacWest Freshman of the Year. She was also a Second Team All-PacWest pick. The 5-10 guard averaged 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds a game. She scored in double figures in 21 games her rookie season.

Tavia Rowell was a standout at Hawai`i Pacific two years ago, and is now on the Point Loma campus. The 5-10 guard redshirted last season, but averaged 17.6 points and six rebounds a contest in 2021-22. Prior to that, she was a two-year starter at Division I Grand Canyon University.

Concordia's Teagan Thurman was a Third Team All-PacWest selection last year after averaging 13.5 points and 7.3 rebounds a game. The 6-foot-1 junior forward/center transferred to CUI last year after starting two seasons at Northwest Nazarene. 

Laila Walker is a 5-5 junior guard that was a Second Team All-PacWest pick for Biola last year. The two-year starter averaged 12.4 points in 2022-23 and knocked down a league-best 71 three-pointers. She also led the PacWest in three-point accuracy at .386. 

Uyehara, Whitmore and the Cougars tip off the season this weekend in Lubbock, Texas against Colorado State-Pueblo and West Texas A&M. The rest of the conference will begin with a full slate of games on Nov. 10. 
 

2023-24 PRESEASON ALL-PACWEST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM
Name	School	Pos.	Yr.	Hometown
Paige Uyehara*	Azusa Pacific	G	Sr.	San Jose, Calif.
Keyonee Neal	Dominican	G	So.	Rohnert Park, Calif.
Tavia Rowell	Point Loma	G	Jr.	Langley, BC
Molly Whitmore	Azusa Pacific	F	Sr.	Adelaide, Australia
Laila Walker	Biola	G	Jr.	Fontana, Calif.
Teagan Thurman	Concordia	F/C	Jr.	Tehachapi, Calif.

                                            *2023-24 PacWest Preseason Player of the Year