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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Locally: Area college basketball players dominate respective Player of the Week honors

Borislava Hristova posted her third double-double of the season. (Stephen Brashear / File/AP)

POW! Not a Batman-and-Robin POW, a player-of-the-week POW. Times 11!

Seven college basketball players with area connections accumulated 11 player of the week awards last week, three of them also gaining national acclaim besides conference honors, for their performances the previous week.

Borislava Hristova of Washington State collected three awards after torching rival Washington for a career-best 38 points in 37 minutes in the Cougars’ Pac-12 opener.

The junior forward was named Pac-12 Women’s Player of the Week for the second time in her career and earned two national honors from College Sports Madness, both the National and Conference Women’s Player of the Week for the Pac-12.

Her 38 points, third best in program history, included a career-high 22 in the first half. She hit a record 16 field goals (on 24 shots), including 4 of 6 3-pointers. She also had five rebounds and two assists. Her 23.2 season average is second in the Pac-12 and sixth in the country.

Mikayla Ferenz of Idaho earned two awards for a performance highlighted by a 27.5 scoring average as the Vandals opened Big Sky Conference play with road wins at Idaho State and Weber State. She was the College Sports Madness National Mid-Major Conference Player of the Week for the Big Sky and the Big Sky POW for a second time this season.

She also averaged five rebounds and added five assists and four steals in the two games in which she shot just less than 50 percent (16 of 33) from the field.

Justin Martin of Multnomah (Portland) was also at it again. The junior guard from Lewis and Clark High School was named the NAIA Division II Men’s National Player of the Week for a second straight time and also the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Player of the Week after he averaged 41 points as the Lions split two games Dec. 29-30.

Martin had 40 points, 32 in the second half, and seven assists as Multnomah knocked off No. 13 Southern Oregon 96-83, the highest-ranked NAIA D-II team the Lions have defeated. Martin, the NAIA Division II national scoring leader, was also honored Dec. 12 for a record 71-point game.

Zykera Rice of Gonzaga was the West Coast Conference Women’s Player of the Week after she had a career- and program-record day to highlight two games in which she averaged 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists as the Zags opened WCC play with road wins over Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.

Against Pepperdine, Rice tied her career high of 23 points off 11-of-12 shooting from the field with a career-high five assists, six rebounds and two steals. The 11-of-12 percentage of 91.7 is also a career high and ranks first in program history for an individual single-game field-goal percentage.

Brianna King of Montana Western was the Frontier Conference’s Women’s Player of the Week for the third time in four weeks after the senior guard from North Central and Community Colleges of Spokane averaged 23 points, 2.5 rebounds, two assists and 2.5 steals as the No. 9 Bulldogs won both their games at the 2018 Hampton Inn Green and Gold Classic in Billings.

She was 16 of 26 from the field, including 5 of 10 on 3-pointers, and 9 of 11 from the free-throw line. It was the eighth weekly honor of her two-year career.

Jessica Olson of Community Colleges of Spokane, a sophomore guard/forward from Moses Lake who coach Bruce Johnson calls “our best player this year on both ends of the floor,” was the NWAC Women’s Player of the Week.

She averaged 20.3 points and nine rebounds to go with seven assists and four steals as the Sasquatch collected three wins at the Skagit Valley Cardinal Classic.

Ben College, a Whitworth junior guard who was the MVP of the D3hoops.com Classic Dec. 27-30 in Las Vegas after leading the Pirates to the championship, was the Northwest Conference Men’s Student-Athlete of the Week.

College, who scored 28 points in Whitworth’s record-setting 143-point outburst against Concordia-Chicago, made 55.6 percent of his shots from the field in three games, 42 percent of his 3-pointers and all 16 of his free throws. He added 10 assists and three steals.

College scene

Led by their kickers, Roldan Alcobendas at Eastern Washington and Cade Coffey at Idaho, the names of Eagles and Vandals dotted the rosters of the Phil Steele Magazine 2018 FCS postseason football awards.

Alcobendas was the only area player named to the Steele FCS All-America first team, selected the kicker on special teams. The Eastern senior was also named the first-team kicker and second-team punter on the magazine’s All-Big Sky Conference team as well as the conference Special Teams Player of the Year.

Coffey, a sophomore from Lakeland of Rathdrum, was the punter on the All-America second team and the All-Big Sky first team. Idaho offensive lineman Logan Floyd was a named to the Steele Freshman All-America first team

Eastern senior defensive lineman Jay-TeeTiuli was a third-team All-American defensive selection and a first-team All-Big Sky pick. The Freshman All-American Team included Eagles defensive lineman Mitchell Johnson on the first team and wide receiver Andrew Boston on the third.

Other Eastern All-Big Sky selections: First team – RB Sam McPherson, OL Spencer Blackburn, DB Josh Lewis. Second team – WR Nsimba Webster, OL Kaleb Levao, OL Chris Schlitchting, DL Keenan Willliams, LB Ketner Kupp, long snapper Curtis Billen. Third team – FB Henderson Belk, DL Johnson, DB D’londo Tucker.

Other Idaho All-Big Sky selections: First team – OL Noah Johnson, LB Kaden Elliss, punt returner David Ungerer. Second team – DL D.J. Henderson.

• Idaho senior linebacker Ed Hall was named to the Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association Academic All-Star Team with a 3.83 GPA in mechanical engineering.

Hall, selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 first team for a second consecutive season, is one of three Big Sky players on the 47-man FCS ADA team.

• Checking in on Madison Hovren: The Army senior from Central Valley leads Patriot League women’s basketball in rebounding (12.8), is No. 2 in scoring (18.5) and registered nine double-doubles in 11 games. She also has top-10 rankings in offensive rebounds (first, 43), defensive rebounds (second, 8.9), steals (eighth, 19) and field-goal percentage (ninth, 45.7).

Markieth Brown Jr., an Everett sophomore guard from Shadle Park, leads NWAC men’s basketball scoring at 26.3 ppg.

• The Eastern Washington athletic department went to women’s basketball and football to select its scholar-athletes of the month for December, honoring seniors Alissa Sealby and Sam McPherson, who both had perfect 4.0 grade-point averages in the recently completed quarter.

Sealby, who has a 3.88 GPA, averaged 8.2 points and 5.0 rebounds in December, tying a career high with 11 points against UC Riverside. She made 42 percent from the field (16 of 38), 45 percent on 3-pointers (9 of 20) and 80 percent from the free-throw line (8 of 10) and was named to the Maui Classic All-Tournament team.

McPherson, who has a 3.78 GPA in mechanical engineering, rushed for 344 yards and three touchdowns in three games in the month, caught five passes for 44 yards and completed two passes for 65 yards. The second-team All-Big Sky Conference selection rushed for 1,352 yards in the Eagles’ first 14 games.

Hockey

The Spokane Chiefs’ annual “Skate with the Chiefs” event will be Thursday at the Riverfront Park Ice Ribbon from 6-8 p.m. with Chiefs players on hand to skate with fans, sign autographs and take pictures.

Fans are encouraged to bring their own skates and/or helmets, but rentals are available at no cost. Fans can save $1 off admission by wearing Chiefs attire.

Info: spokanechiefs.com.

Shooting

The Spokane Junior Rifle Club will send its gold team to the U.S. Army Junior National Air Rifle Championships on Jan. 24-26 in Fort Benning, Georgia, following six weeks of qualifying that ended Dec. 16.

SJRC Gold, which shot its qualifying round Nov. 3 in Walla Walla, compiled a score of 2,365.5 out of a possible 2,616 to place 22nd in a national field of 89 teams. The winning score was 2,456.6. The top 30 qualified for Fort Benning, as did the top 30 individuals in a field of 536.

Cassidy Wilson, 18, who is home schooled, was SJRC’s top-finishing individual in 61st. Taking 60 shots from a standing position at 10 meters (33 feet), she shot 601.9 out of a possible 654. The winning score was 625.4.

Others on the SJRC Gold team: Mason Maystrovich, 17, Northwest Christian, 78th, 599.8; Taylor Christian, 16, Spokane Valley Tech, 121st, 593.7; and Zach Pearsall, 17, homeschooled, 288th, 570.1. Ben Tafoya, 16, Gonzaga Prep, 304th, 567.1, is the alternate.

Volleyball

Washington State and head volleyball coach Jen Greeny agreed to a new contract that will run through June 2024, director of athletics Pat Chun announced.

“We could not be more impressed with the ascension of Cougar volleyball under Jen Greeny,” Chun said. “She has taken the program to levels not seen in nearly two decades, and with three-straight NCAA appearances, including reaching the Round of 16 this past season, Cougar volleyball could not be in better hands.

“We look forward to having Jen and her staff leading our volleyball program for many years to come.”

A 1999 graduate of WSU and three-time All-Pac-10 volleyball selection, Greeny has complied an overall record of 132-130 in eight seasons since taking over the Cougars in March 2011 and was the 2016 Pac-12 Coach of the Year. She has coached or played in eight of WSU’s 12 NCAA championship tournament appearances.

This season’s 23 wins are the program’s most since the 2002 team won 24.