Jan. 14, 2008

FAIRBANKS, AK- A pair of jaw-dropping statistical performances in conference games last week has earned Alaska's Sheena Brown her second career Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor. The only player thus far to win the award twice this season, Brown previously took home the honor for the week of Dec. 10-16 after leading the Nanooks to three wins on their Hawaiian road trip.

Earning Player of the Week honors caps a tremendous week for Brown, who put on an impressive show in road games against both No. 6 Seattle Pacific and Northwest Nazarene. Despite trailing by 20 points at the break against the nationally-ranked Falcons last Thursday, Brown almost single-handedly got the Nanooks back in contention. The Lathrop graduate scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half, and had five steals on the defensive end as well in leading the Blue and Gold in a valiant fightback that came up just a few minutes too short.

Brown was just getting warmed up, however, and put together an even better performance against the Crusaders on Saturday. Putting the team on her shoulders, Brown scored a career-high 34 points, tying the 11th highest single-game total in GNAC history, and the second-highest point total in the conference this season.

Brown's performance came almost three years to the day that the Nanooks last had a player put over 30 points on the scoreboard, as Adrienne Taalak accomplished the feat by scoring 32 against Anchorage on Jan. 15, 2005. Her 34 points also marks the most scored by a Nanook since Cody Burgess had 37 against Central Washington on Dec. 2, 2004.

Over the two games combined, Brown finished with 57 points, knocking down 20 of her 50 shots (a 40 percent clip), including connecting on six of her 17 three-point attempts and 11 of her 14 foul shots. Backed by those impressive numbers, Brown is now averaging 18.0 points per game: second-best in the conference behind only MSU Billings Alira Carpenter (19.7).

Brown also added eight rebounds, six steals and six assists (five of which came against Northwest Nazarene) to the Nanooks over the two games last week.

This week's award is just the latest in a string of accolades for Brown. In addition to her first career GNAC Player of the Week award earlier this season, she was also named to the 2007 Mt. McKinley Bank North Star Invitational All-Tournament Team after leading the Nanooks to a second-place finish at the competition. Brown earned both GNAC Honorable Mention honors as well as a spot on the Academic All-American team in the 2006-07 season.

Brown and Alaska now return to the Patty Center court for their second homestand of the conference season, taking on Western Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 17 before meeting Saint Martin's this Saturday, Jan. 19.