Senior: I’ll be honest part of the reason Grace Gilmore is senior of the week is the amazing 20 free throws that she shot in game 2 versus Kansas City. Beyond that, however, Gilmore had a fantastic weekend and provided a little bit of everything for the Leathernecks this weekend. Gilmore averaged 15 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.5 rebounds. To add to Gilmore’s all-around performance, the senior from Hartland, Wisconsin added in 2.5 steals on the defensive end.
Junior: Perhaps we should rename this the Myah Selland weekly award. While the Jacks Selland was certainly worthy of the award again this week I’m gonna shine a light on another Junior in the Summit from Denver. Anna Jackson had a solid weekend and helped the Pioneers to come within a couple of points of sweeping ORU. Jackson, a Flower Mound, Texas native had a 14 point, 4 rebounds and 2 assist line in the narrow 1 point loss on Saturday and nearly had a double-double Friday with 18pts and 9 rebound effort in the convincing win. The 6’0 guard also added in a block for good measure. The Pioneers travel to Fargo for two with the Bison this weekend.
Sophomore: Heaven Hamling; North Dakota State. Hamling continued to lead the revitalized Bison women as North Dakota State picked up a Summit sweep over in-state rival, North Dakota. In Saturday’s 71-68 overtime win, Hamling finished with 14 points in 42 minutes. Hamling’s three in overtime helped close the door on the Fighting Hawks. On Friday, UND and NDSU played another tight contest with the Bison winning 64-60. Hamling was key again, adding 12 points and five boards to the Bison cause.
Freshmen: Friday and Saturday’s matchup between Oral Roberts (3-1) and Denver (1-3) featured two talented Freshmen in the Summit League: Tierney Coleman of the Golden Eagles and Emily Counsel of the Pioneers. Both were worthy of our Freshmen of the Week this week but the nod goes to Emily Counsel. Counsel had a terrific weekend as she posted a career-high 18 points on Friday, only to top that performance with 26 points on Saturday. On Friday, Counsel went 7-11 from the field, including 3-5 from the three-point line en route to an 89-71 victory. On Saturday, Counsel came off the bench and gave the Pioneers a much-needed spark, scoring ten points in both the first and second quarters to help keep the game within one possession going into halftime. She ended the game going 9-12 from the field and 6-6 from the free throw line in a last-second loss to the Golden Eagles (79-78). Denver travels to Fargo to take on NDSU (5-1) this upcoming weekend.
Bench Player: This week’s Reaching the Summit bench player of the week is ORU’s Gem Summers. The local sophomore from Tulsa played a steady 6th person in the weekend split with Denver. She is someone who is not afraid to put up the shots and when she is hitting, she scores quickly. Gem had 14 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the opening loss to Denver & followed that up with 10 points/4 assists/2 steals in the road win finale. Look for Summers to keep it up this weekend vs UMKC.
Defense: South Dakota State allowed a total of 104 points to Omaha in two games over the weekend. The Jackrabbits defeated the Mavericks 62-50 on Friday and 64-54 on Saturday. SDSU shut down Omaha from beyond the arc on Saturday as the Mavericks were only able to covert on 12 percent of its shots from 3-point land. The Mavericks finished with 32 total turnovers in the two losses to SDSU. Omaha has failed to score 60 or more points in its last seven games.