AMERICUS, Ga. - The Peach Belt Conference announced their 2023-2024 Women's Basketball season awards on Wednesday evening at an awards banquet in Americus, Georgia, site of the PBC Women's Basketball Championship. Graduate guard, WyKira Johnson-Kelly (Franklinville, N.J.), was announced as the conference's player of the year and named first team All-PBC while Tanyia Gordon (Plant City, Fla.) was named to the All-PBC second team.

Johnson-Kelly becomes the eighth Lander Women's Basketball player in program history to earn the conference's top honor, the first since Makaila Cangé in 2021-22 and the first to win the award outright since Cangé the season prior. This also marks the sixth straight season that a Bearcat has earned at least one of the conference's top honors (Freshman of the Year, Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year) and the second in as many seasons under Stephanie Gehlhausen. 

Johnson-Kelly and Gordon also become the 49th and 50th All-PBC Honorees in program history.

The graduate student from Franklinville, N.J. led the conference in scoring with 17.6 points per game and ended the season just six points shy of 500. She was also fourth in the conference in assists (3.7) and second in steals with 2.5. She did all of this playing the most minutes of any player in the PBC with 946.

Gordon was ninth in the conference in scoring, netting 13.5 points per game, was eighth in the conference in blocked shots with 20, and was right behind her teammate in steals per game in third with 2.4. 

The duo combined to score over 20 points 14 times and were both apart of the buzzer beater to beat Fayetteville State with Gordon inbounding the pass to Johnson-Kelly who tipped it in.

Lander begins their PBC Tournament journey tomorrow evening as they face the North Georgia Nighthawks for a scheduled 7:30 PM tip-off. This marks the fourth time that the Bearcats and Nighthawks have faced in the conference tournament and seventh time in postseason play. The two teams split the matchups this season with each side defending the home floor.