DAHLONEGA – The No. 7 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's basketball team had three players selected to the 2025 Peach Belt Conference All-Conference Teams as announced by the league office Friday morning. 

Head coach Buffie Burson was named the 2025 PBC Coach of the Year for the fifth time in her career and the first time since 2022. No coach in PBC history has earned the annual award as many times as Burson. She has led her team to a program-record 27 wins through 29 games so far this season. With an 16-2 record in conference play, Burson and the Nighthawks won the fifth PBC Regular-Season Championship in program history. UNG also accomplished another remarkable feat this season going undefeated (11-0) on the road for the first time in program history. 

With 27 overall wins and 16 conference wins this season, Burson has now won 387 total games since joining the PBC, 233 of which have come against conference opponents. With the totals from this season, Burson became the winningest women's basketball coach in conference history. 

Graduate guard Caroline Martin earned the league's highest competitive honor as she was named as the 2025 PBC Player of the Year on Friday. Martin led the Nighthawks in scoring (16.7 points per game) and rebounding (5.7 rebounds per game) in the regular season. 

She ranked third in the league in scoring while also ranking in the top 5 in field goal percentage, field goals made, free throws made, total points and defensive rebounds per game. Martin also ranked in the top 10 in the league in total assists, assists per game, free throw percentage, total steals, steals per game and three pointers made. She has reached double figures in scoring in nine straight games and in 14 of the last 15. Her efforts also earned her a spot on this year's PBC All-Conference First Team. 

The Cumming, Ga. native is the sixth Nighthawk in program history to be named the conference player of the year. With the award Martin has now won nearly every competitive award the conference offers. 

The fifth-year Nighthawk has been named the PBC Player of the Week six times in her career, four of which came this season which is a program record. She is two-time PBC Preseason All-Conference selection and a four-time PBC All-Conference selection. She has been named to the all-conference First Team three times. Martin was named the 2021 PBC Freshman of the Year in her rookie season and has been named to the PBC All-Tournament Team twice. 

Martin is just the seventh player in PBC history to be named to the all-conference teams four times in her career. She joins current assistant coach Julianna Sutton as the only Nighthawks to ever accomplish the achievement. 

Joining Martin with first-team postseason accolades this year was graduate forward Emily Trushel.

The Brentwood, Tenn. native was named to the PBC All-Conference First Team for the second time as a Nighthawk and third time in her career. Trushel ended the regular season with one of the most outstanding feats of any shooter in the nation as she led the conference in field goal percentage (50.2 percent), three-point percentage (43.7 percent) and free-throw percentage (87.5 percent). Nationally she ranked No. 48, No. 6 and No. 14 in all three shooting categories respectively. 

Trushel finished the regular season averaging 14.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.3 steals. The veteran ranked third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio, total assists and assists per game. She also ranked fifth in field goals made, six in points per game and second in three pointers made. 

Senior guard Ansley Hall also earned an all-conference selection as she was named to the PBC All-Conference Third Team. The award marks Hall's first all-conference selection of her career. She led the Nighthawks in passing this season with a total of 133 assists in the regular season for a 4.9 per game average. Both marks ranked second in the conference. Hall has especially turned the dial up down the stretch as she's averaging 6.6 assists in the last eight games for UNG. 

The Watkinsville, Ga. native also set new single-season career highs this season in nearly every statistical category including scoring average (10.1 points), field goal shooting (44.1 percent) and three-point shooting (40.4 percent).

With their accolades this season, this marks the second year in program history in which the Nighthawks were awarded the PBC Coach of the Year and Player of the Year awards while also totaling three all-conference selections. UNG last accomplished the feat in 2022 when the team went 29-4 and finished in the NCAA Final Four. 

Burson, Martin, Trushel, Hall and the top-seeded Nighthawks take the floor again Saturday, March 8 in the 2025 PBC Women's Basketball Tournament Semifinals against fourth-seeded Georgia College. Tip off from Lynn Cottrell Arena at the UNG Convocation Center takes place at 1 p.m.