UConn junior forward Gabby Williams and Temple junior guard Tanaya Atkinson, who played at Career in New Haven, headlined the list of players honored by American Athletic Conference on Thursday.

Williams was named Defensive Player while Atkinson won the Sixth Player of the Year award.

Williams had seven games with at least four steals with three coming in league play. She also had 10 games with at least two steals and two blocked shots including six against AAC teams. She ranks third in steals and fifth in blocked shots among AAC players.

Atkinson, who did not start a conference game, averaged 12.6 points per game in AAC games. She led the conference in offensive rebounds, was eighth in rebounding and was also sixth with a 48.8 field-goal percentage.

Williams was also selected to the first team All-AAC team. UConn sophomores Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson were unanimous selections, while Kia Nurse and Saniya Chong earned second team and third team honors, respectively.

Collier scored in double figures in every conference game this season with nine 20-point games and 10 double-doubles in 16 conference games. She edged out Samuelson to post the highest scoring average in league play as Collier averaged 21.6 points and Samuelson's 21.5. She also led the league in rebounding (9.8 per game), field-goal percentage (75.0) and blocked shots (2.2). She was fifth in free-throw percentage (83.3).

Samuelson finished with a conference leading scoring average of 20.7 in all games and also led the AAC with 93 3-pointers.

Williams led the 29-0 Huskies with 152 assists and 79 steals. She also averaged 13 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Collier, Samuelson and Williams were also among the 10 players announced as semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy, one of the major national player of the year awards.

Nurse, who was named a third-team Academic All-American by CoSIDA earlier on Thursday, is UConn's fourth-leading scorer (12.8 points per game), leads the team with a free-throw percentage of 85.7, is second with 49 3-pointers and third with 104 assists despite missing the last four games with a stress reaction in her right ankle.

Chong leads the conference and the nation in assist/turnover ratio (106 assists versus 29 turnovers). She is also averaging 8.1 points per game.

Crystal Dangerfield was named to the All-Freshman team as she led all AAC freshmen in assists (82) and with a 2.1 assist/turnover ratio.

Cincinnati's Shanice Johnson was named the winner of the Newcomer of the Year Award, Tulane's Leslie Vorpahl earned the Sportsmanship Award and USF's Maria Jespersen was named the Most Improved Player. Jespersen also joined teammate Kitija Laksa, UCF's Aliyah Gregory and Temple's Feyonda Fitzgerald on the first team.

The conference's player of the year, coach of the year, scholar-athlete of the year and freshman of the year will be announced at a press conference on Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena, where the tournament begins with three first round games.