SAN FRANCISCO — University of Washington guard Kelsey Plum was named the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. Plum averaged 27.5 points per game in leading the Huskies to wins over a pair of ranked teams over the weekend.
The Huskies defeated No. 17 UCLA on Friday night and No. 25 USC on Sunday to improve to 5-2 in the Pac-12 and 14-4 overall.
Plum, the nation’s leading scorer, tallied 23 points against UCLA, and 32 against USC, but she did more than just put the ball in the basket, adding five rebounds and four assists against UCLA and five assists against the Trojans. She also shot 11-for-12 from the foul line against the Bruins and 10-for-12 against USC to add to her nation-leading free throw total that now stands at 139.
In the process of leading the Huskies to a pair of victories, Plum moved up the all-time Washington scoring list, passing Husky Hall of Famer Giuliana Mendiola. Plum has scored 1,950 points, which ranks third on UW’s all-time scoring list. The junior is just 50 points short of 2,000 for her career, despite playing just 85 games. She is on pace to become one of the fastest in NCAA history to reach that milestone.
This is the first Pac-12 Player of the Week honor of the season for Plum and second of her career. She also was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week seven times during her rookie season.
After beating the 17th-ranked Bruins and coming from 10 points down at halftime to best No. 25 USC, the Huskies received votes in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, but failed to crack the rankings for the first time since 2003.
Meanwhile, Washington State freshman Borislava Hristova was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.
Hristova led the Cougars to a 12-point victory over then-No. 25 USC on Friday, leading all scorers with 21 points. The Bulgarian native’s performance broke a 26-year-old WSU freshman record for most 20-point performances in a season. She has seven.
Hristova nearly led WSU to a second top-25 upset on Sunday as the Cougars fell to No. 17 UCLA, 73-75. Again, she led all scorers with 19 points, including 11 in the third quarter, to help WSU rally.
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