Junior guard Ariel Jones was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division Athlete of the Year and Kristy Trn was named the PSAC Eastern Division Coach of the Year on Thursday to highlight the announcement of the 2019-20 All-PSAC Eastern Division basketball teams by the conference office.

Voting is conducted by the head coaches in the Eastern Division. The awards are based on performance in the regular season, and statistics listed therein do not reflect the postseason.
 
Jones and junior Destiny Jefferson were named to the All-PSAC Eastern Division First Team, while sophomore Aunbrielle Green was named to the All-PSAC Eastern Division Second Team.
 
It is the third consecutive All-PSAC First Team classification for Jones and the second consecutive All-PSAC First Team classification for Jefferson, who was honored last year at West Chester. It is the second consecutive All-PSAC Second Team classification for Green.
 
Jones is the eighth PSAC Athlete of the Year selection under Trn, and the first Raider honored with the award since Stephanie Knauer in 2016-17. It is Trn's fifth PSAC Coach of the Year award.
 
The All-PSAC awards are especially prestigious in that a total of 14 athletes (seven First Team, seven Second Team) are honored from a pool that includes nine teams. Shippensburg and Shepherd each had three All-PSAC honorees, while East Stroudsburg and Kutztown had two honorees. Kutztown's Casey Remolde was named the East Defensive Athlete of the Year, and Shepherd's Abby Beeman was named the East Freshman of the Year.
 
Jones, Division II's active career leader in scoring average (23.2), free throws made (626) and free-throw attempts (770), entered the postseason ranked third in the PSAC and ninth in the nation in scoring (22.3). She ranks second in the nation with 202 free throws and 247 free-throw attempts.
 
"From her freshman year to present, she has had a tremendous amount of maturity and growth out on the floor," Trn said of Jones. "There are times this season when she realizes she doesn't have to be out there doing everything, and she sort of lets her other teammates get involved, which is a great sign of maturity and leadership. She's been far more vocal out on the floor than she's been in the past and even on the bench, pointing things out to her teammates and recommending things that would be successful."
 
Jones has posted double figures in 27-of-28 games this season, including 17 games of 20 or more points and eight games of 30 or more points. Jones' 59 three-pointers, 148 rebounds and 20 blocks this season are a career high.
 
"Last year we felt she had the statistics to earn this award, and this year, even though we have some more support around her, she has continued to expand her game – become more of a rebounder, pick it up on the defensive side of the ball," Trn said. "But obviously she's known for putting the ball in the basket. She can do it from the three-point line, contested, she can do it driving to the basket, contested, and she can do it from the free-throw line."
 
With 623 points this season, she has become just the third player in PSAC history to record three seasons of 600 or more points.
 
"Her willingness to shift from the point to the wing this season and take on somewhat of a different role (has been key), but she still has the ability when the game is on the line to want the ball," Trn said. "When the shots fall everybody's happy. When they don't, there's some blame that wants to be given. That's a weight that very few people understand. She's carried that for three years. This year, I think she's carried that extremely well."
 
Jefferson ranks eighth in the PSAC in assists (3.8) and is among the Top 15 players in the league in scoring (14.8). She has posted double figures in scoring in 23 games, including seven games of 20 or more points. She has recorded five or more assists in seven games. Jefferson's 5.9 rebounding average ranks third on the team. She has recorded more assists (team-high 106) and rebounds (164) this season than she did in her previous two seasons combined.
 
Green ranks seventh in the PSAC in rebounds (7.6), second among Raiders, and averages 9.8 points per game – the third-best rate on the team. She has posted double figures in 14 games and recorded double-digit rebounds in eight games – including two double-doubles. On 22 occasions this season, Green finished a game with five or more rebounds.
 
Trn has guided Shippensburg to its seventh 20-win season in her tenure and the school's twelfth overall. The Raiders lead the nation in free throws and are one of the conference's top rebounding team (44.0, 18th in the nation). SU went 14-3 since the calendar switched to 2020 – finishing the Eastern Division schedule with a 13-3 record. The Raiders are 13-1 at home this season.
 
"Even though it's a coach award, it's really still a player award," Trn said. "Because if we don't have the players that can get the job done out on the floor, there's no coach award. We do have a tremendous staff, with the experience that we get from Coach Smith and the help from Coach Clippinger; they are very beneficial. But I think this is more even a team award, including staff, than it is just for a head coach."