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Payton Graber Named NJCAA First Team All-American

Payton Graber Named NJCAA First Team All-American
April 4, 2023

CONTACT: Adam Sopris, a.sopris@hvcc.edu, 518-629-7898 or 518-416-2137
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Hudson Valley Community College's women's basketball freshman standout, Payton Graber (Schenectady/Schalmont) was named to the NJCAA All-America First Team as announced by the NJCAA and the NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

The All-America honors comes to no surprise as Graber had one of the more prolific scoring seasons in Hudson Valley women's basketball history. She topped the national ranking in points per game for a majority of the season and finished with a season average of 24.8 points per game, which ranked second in the nation. Graber was also a lockdown defender and facilitator as she led the team with 4.9 steals per game, which ranked third in the nation, and grabbed a team-best 9.4 rebounds to lead the team in rebounding as a 5-8 guard. She also led the team with 3.6 assists per game while averaging over 33 minutes per game.

Graber, a 2022 New York State Class B Champion and all-time leading scorer during her high school career at Schalmont, came out of the gates running as she tipped-off the season with back-to-back 30-point games and later scored a career-high 41 points at Massasoit on Jan. 10.

Graber, the 2023 NJCAA Region 3 Player of the Year & Mountain Valley Conference Player of the Year, is the first Hudson Valley women's basketball player to garner national First Team All-America recognition since the Vikings all-time leader scorer and HVCC Hall of Famer, Lindsey Bradt (Class of '02) was named NJCAA First Team All-America in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Hannah Kreiger (Class of '19) was named and Honorable Mention All-American by the Women's Basketball Coaching Association (WBCA) following the 2018-19 season and My'Asia Alston (Class of '15) was named NJCAA Third Team All-America following her 2014-15 season when she averaged 24.1 points per game, a single season record that was broken by Graber this season.