Three Patriot Women earn PBC honors

AIKEN, SC - Three Francis Marion University women's basketball players were honored at the Peach Belt Conference's basketball awards banquet, held Friday evening (March 5) in Aiken.  The event was held prior to the conference's championship weekend.

Junior guard Shannon Singleton-Bates was named a first-team All-PBC performer, while senior guard Eboni Fields was selected to the second-team and junior point guard Robin Colbert was named the PBC's Defensive Player of the Year.

Singleton-Bates, a 5-10 product of South Norwalk, Conn., leads Francis Marion and is fifth in the PBC in scoring at 16.2 points per game.  She is seventh in the conference in steals (2.1 spg), 12th in field goal percentage (47.3%), and 14th in free throw percentage (70.6%).  This past season she surpassed 1,000 points for her career, and she earns All-PBC honors for the second straight year. 

Fields, a 5-5 native of Hephzibah, Ga., ranked second on the Patriots and 12th in the Peach Belt in scoring at 12.1 ppg.  She was second in the PBC in three-pointers made per game and fifth in three-point percentage (38.3%).  She also registered more assists than turnovers from her spot in the backcourt, despite only averaging 20.3 minutes played per game.

Colbert, a 5-10 native of Mitchellville, Md., leads the PBC and is ranked fourth nationally in steals per game with 3.71 per contest and is the only PBC player with over 100 steals this season. She also leads FMU in blocked shots with 22, and leads the PBC in assists with 5.18 per game, which ranks 17th in Division II, and is 13th nationally in assists-to-turnovers ratio.  She is averaging 8.0 ppg.

The trio of women's players helped the Patriots to a 25-3 record, a current No.17 national ranking, and a spot in Saturday's semifinals of the Peach Belt Tournament.

Shannon Singleton-Bates              Eboni Fields                        Robin Colbert