AP names A’ja Wilson a first-team All-American

South Carolina junior forward A’ja Wilson was named a First-Team All-America honors by the Associated Press on Monday. It is the second season that she has been recognized on the AP First Team, while senior center Alaina Coates picked up honorable mention status for the second time in her career.

“South Carolina has known how special A’ja Wilson is as a player and a person for a long time, and the rest of the country has spent the last three years catching up,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said in a release. “Watching her grow into the force she is today, on and off the court, has been one of the great joys of my basketball career. A’ja deserves every accolade she gets because as talented as she is, she never stops working to be better.”

The two-time reigning SEC Player of the Year, Wilson powered South Carolina to its fourth-straight SEC regular-season title and third-consecutive SEC Tournament championship as the team’s top scorer and shot blocker. She averaged 17.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots per game.

Injury shortened Coates’ career by several games, but her resume still stands among the best to wear a Gamecock uniform, highlighted by being the first to earn All-SEC honors all four years of her career. This season’s domination included averaging a double-double overall (12.9 ppg/10.7 rpg), in SEC action (12.7 ppg/11.1 rpg) and against ranked opponents (11.8 ppg/11.4 rpg).

The No. 3/4 Gamecocks will vie for their second NCAA Final Four appearance Monday against No. 10/13 Florida State as play in the NCAA Stockton Regional closes out the Elite Eight games at 9 p.m. (ET) on ESPN.

2017 AP All-America First Team

Napheesa Collier, F, UConn

Brionna Jones, C, Maryland

Katie Lou Samuelson, G, UConn

Kelsey Plum, G, Washington

A’ja Wilson, F, South Carolina

2017 AP All-America Second Team

Kelsey Mitchell, G, Ohio State

Chantel Osahor, F/C, Washington

Alexis Peterson, G, Syracuse

Brianna Turner, F, Notre Dame

Gabby Williams, F, UConn

2017 AP All-America Third Team

Lindsay Allen, G, Notre Dame

Lexie Brown, G, Duke

Victoria Vivians, F, Mississippi State

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, G, Maryland

Sydney Wiese, G, Oregon State

This story was originally published March 27, 2017 at 1:52 PM with the headline "AP names A’ja Wilson a first-team All-American."