ST. LOUIS – Three members of the Southern Illinois University women’s basketball team were recognized on Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Teams, the conference announced Tuesday. Makenzie Silvey was named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team for the second-straight season while Abby Brockmeyer earned a spot on the Second Team and Payton McCallisterclaimed Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention honors.
Silvey holds a 3.781 GPA as an accounting major. She earned her third-straight Scholar-Athlete team honor after she averaged 14.5 points, 2.8 assists in 33.2 minutes per game. She has scored in double figures in 17 of the 21 games in which she has played in, which includes three 20-plus point games. Silvey finished the regular season ranked fifth in the Valley in minutes played, sixth in the league in scoring and 11th in three-pointers made per game (1.7). Silvey is just 12 points shy of becoming the sixth player in program history to eclipse the 1,500 career point plateau.
Brockmeyer holds a 3.842 GPA as an accounting major. She also earned her third-straight Scholar-Athlete team honor despite having only played in 10 games this season due to injury. The Raymond, Ill. native has scored in double figures in eight of the 10 games she has played in, which includes a pair of 20-plus point games. Brockmeyer went for a career-high 28 points to go along with eight boards on Jan. 31 at Loyola and followed with 13 points and 14 boards against the Ramblers the following night. It was one of three double-doubles this season for the 2018 MVC Freshman of the Year.
McCallister’s nod on the MVC Scholar-Athlete honorable mention team is the first of her career. She holds a 3.856 GPA as an electrical engineering major. The Columbia, Mo. native has had a career year for the Salukis, as she has scored in double figures in 10 games this season after she had done so in four games in her previous two seasons prior. The junior guard finished the 2020-21 regular season ranked in the top-10 of the Missouri Valley Conference in three categories including steals (7th; 1.5/game), three-pointers per game (8th; 1.7/game) and minutes played (9th; 31.6/game). She finished with a career-high 17 points in SIU’s win over Evansville on Jan. 3.
Southern’s three total honorees are the most of any Valley school. SIU has had at least one MVC Scholar-Athlete honoree in each of head coach Cindy Stein‘s eight seasons as head coach and have had 18 earn MVC Scholar-Athlete honors during her tenure. It marks the fifth time in the last six seasons that the Salukis have placed three on MVC Scholar-Athlete teams.
The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75-percent of a team’s games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).
SIU is back in action on Thursday, March 11 at 4:30 p.m. against the Indiana State Sycamores. The winner of Thursday’s contest will take on the No. 23 Missouri State on Friday at 11 a.m.