Hamblin Earns AP All-America Honors
CORVALLIS - Junior Ruth Hamblin has been named to the AP All-America Third Team, the Associated Press announced today. Hamblin is the sixth Beaver to earn All-America honors in school history, and the first since Felicia Ragland in 2002.
Tuesday’s All-America honor is the latest in a long line of awards for Hamblin, who was named an All-America Finalist by the WBCA last week and has earned Pac-12 Player of the Year (Media), Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (Media and Coaches), All-Pac-12 (Media and Coaches) and Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honors this season.
Hamblin was a force for the Beavers at both ends of the floor this season, scoring 12.9 points per game, and pulling down 8.6 rebounds per contest. Her total of 122 blocks this season is good for seventh in the nation and first in the conference. Hamblin blocked more shots this season than seven Pac-12 teams, and notched 12 games with five or more rejections. Hamblin’s season was highlighted by a 31-point, 16-rebound performance against Washington State, as she shot 12-for-16 from the field and blocked seven shots.
The 6-foot-6 Canadian is Oregon State’s all-time leader in career blocks with 295. Her career field goal percentage of 56.4 is good for third in school history, and her 58 percent shooting this year was eighth in the nation. Hamblin has also busted into the OSU record book in rebounding, sitting seventh with 276 this season and ninth with 657 in her career.
Hamblin was named Pac-12 Player of the Week twice over the course of the season, and helped Oregon State to the best year in school history, as the Beavers set a school record with 27 wins en route to the program’s first ever Pac-12 title. Along the way Oregon State proved it could beat the nation’s best teams, taking down North Carolina on the road, sweeping Arizona State and defeating California. The Beavers were in the national rankings throughout the season, moving as high as No. 7 before ending the regular season ranked 10th.
Earlier this morning, Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck was named an assistant coach for the USA Pan-American Basketball Team. Read more about that here.
