NEWS : Lefebvre-Okankwu named OUA East MVP, Szczokin and Katumbayi earn honours

Ontario University Athletics released its All-Stars and Award Winners for the 2021-2022 women's basketball season on Wednesday afternoon, including three Gee-Gees who earned recognition. 

Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu was named as the winner of two of the conference's major awards. She earned the OUA East Most Valuable Player award and the Joy Bellinger Award for outstanding combination of academic, athletic, and community achievements this season. 

Natsuki Szczokin was selected as an OUA East Second Team All-Star, and Nadine Katumbayi earned a place on the OUA East All-Rookie Team. 

For Lefebvre-Okankwu, the double-recognition comes after her fourth season in Garnet and Grey which saw her grow her legacy both on and off the court. The 6-foot-1 forward from Gatineau, Que. set a career high with 16.4 points per game, which ranked first in the OUA East. 

She complemented that with a career-high 9.7 rebounds per game, ranking fifth in the entire OUA, and 1.8 steals per game, helping lead the Gee-Gees to a 10-4 regular season record.

"She's a very athletic post and she puts herself in the right positions," says Gee-Gees head coach Rose-Anne Joly about Lefebvre-Okankwu's impact on the floor. "She can play full-court defence, she can play half-court defence, she can run the floor. It's hard to defend someone like her, who can also shoot it from the three-point line."

"She knows that she's in the position where we really need her to win games, and she's not afraid of having that role," Joly adds. 

Another role Lefebvre-Okankwu has embraced is that of a powerful voice within the Ottawa community. She was a founding member of the Black Student-Athletes Advocacy Council at uOttawa and serves on the executive committee as secretary. 

She helped to spearhead a fundraising and awareness campaign for Black Lives Matter in 2020 with a virtual run of 1666 kilometres to Minneapolis. The effort sparked important conversations and raised $3200 which was donated across several organizations chosen by the Gee-Gees women's basketball team: Black History Ottawa, The Odawa Native Friendship Centre, The Congress of Black Women of Canada,  Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario, and Colour of Change. She also maintains ties with a Gatineau community organization called Underdog-Mixtape which provides events and programming to uplift local athletes and artists. 

Lefebvre-Okankwu has been a consistent performer academically as well as on the court, having been an Academic All-Canadian for her first four years at uOttawa. In 2020 she was the Valedictorian for the Faculty of Science as she received her Honours Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science and Minor in Psychology. Now pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Lefebvre-Okankwu has maintained a 10.0 term GPA for the last four consecutive terms. Earlier this week, she was announced as a winner of the U SPORTS Top 8 Academic All-Canadian award for 2020-21.

"She came in as a person who was involved in so many things and she has always wanted to be a good student first. Everything she does is at 100 per cent and she is expecting nothing less than an A-plus," notes Joly. 

A pair of young Gee-Gees guards also made an impact this season, including OUA Second Team All-Star Natsuki Szczokin. Playing in her second season in Garnet and Grey, the product of Barrie, Ont., led the Gee-Gees in minutes played (29.9), assists (4.1), and steals (1.9) per game and was second on the team in points with 8.9 per game. Her assists ranked second in the OUA overall. 

"The speed that we're playing at is one hundred percent because of Natsuki and teams have been struggling to defend us because of that," says Joly. "In transition you can see her style and the amazing athlete that she is."

Nadine Katumbayi was third on the Gee-Gees in scoring with 7.2 points per game and second in assists with 2.2 per game, and was named to the OUA East All-Rookie team. Joly notes that Katumbayi has been a key player within the Ottawa defence as well.

"She's been a huge contributor, not only on the offensive side of the floor but definitely on the defensive side. She took on a big role in her first year, and she was ready for it. She's a locked-in athlete who is very composed. She's definitely going to be a leader for us moving forward."