SAN FRANCISCO – After posting back-to-back double-doubles while leading the Golden Bears to the weekend sweep, California junior Kristine Anigwe has been named the Pac-12 Player of the Week, the conference office announced on Monday. Anigwe averaged 28 points and 13.5 rebounds per game while leading the Golden Bears (13-4, 4-2 Pac-12) to wins over Washington and Washington State. UCLA rookie Michaela Onyenwere was selected as the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.
This is the second Pac-12 Player of the Week honor for Anigwe this season and the third of her career. The 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Anigwe earned conference Freshman of the Week honors a record eight times during the 2015-16 season and was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week earlier this season after averaging 27 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in wins over San Diego and Pacific.
A two-time All-Pac-12 selection and midseason candidate for the John R. Wooden Award, Anigwe added three blocks and two steals over the pair of games while shooting nearly 65% from the floor. In Friday's win over Washington, Anigwe had a game-high 26 points, going 12-18 from the floor and adding 10 rebounds. She followed it up with 30 points on 12-19 shooting on Sunday against Washington State, adding 17 rebounds, the most by any player in a Pac-12 game this season while guiding Cal to its third consecutive win in conference play.
Sunday’s outing against the Cougars was ninth career game with 30+ points and her 7th outing with at least 30-points and 10 rebounds. All other players in the conference combined have just two 30-10 games over the last three seasons.
Anigwe leads the Pac-12 with four double-doubles this season in conference play while also leading the conference in rebounding for the season, averaging 9.4 boards per game. The 6’4” center/forward also ranks third in the conference in both scoring (18.0 points per game) and field goal percentage (58.5 percent).
A two-time honorable mention All-American and the 2016 USBWA National Freshman of the Year, Anigwe moved into the top-10 in Cal’s all-time scoring list this weekend and is now one of only five active players in all of Division I women’s basketball with at least 1,600 career points and 750 career rebounds. The other four players to hit the thresholds – South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, Louisville’s Myisha Hines-Allen, Temple’s Tanaya Atkinson, and Columbia’s Camille Zimmermann, are all seniors.
Anigwe and the 21st-ranked Golden Bears will return to action on Friday, visiting 13th-ranked UCLA in a 6 p.m. PT matchup at Pauley Pavilion. The game will be televised live on Pac-12 Networks.
If we win the games we will be favored in, we should end up 19-10 going into the Pac-12 tournament and finish 6th. We have a good chance of winning games where we are underdogs but also have a good chance of losing games where we are favored. I suspect that there will be a lot of close games.MoragaBear said:
Interesting that Cal, OSU and UCLA are all 13-4
about rightGATC said:If we win the games we will be favored in, we should end up 19-10 going into the Pac-12 tournament and finish 6th. We have a good chance of winning games where we are underdogs but also have a good chance of losing games where we are favored. I suspect that there will be a lot of close games.MoragaBear said:
Interesting that Cal, OSU and UCLA are all 13-4
