March 3, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA has named senior Valeriya Berezhynska of Rice its women's basketball Player of the Week Monday. Berezhynska and the Owls concluded regular season action with a pair of home wins over East Carolina and Marshall. The 6-4 center averaged 23.0 points, 19.5 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.5 blocks per game.

CONFERENCE USA PLAYER OF THE WEEK

VALERIYA BEREZHYNSKA, RICE
6-4, Senior, Center, Nikolaev, Ukraine

Berezhynska paced Rice to a pair of home victories over East Carolina and Marshall to close out the regular season and tallied a complete effort averaging 23.0 points, 19.5 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.5 blocks per game. She knocked down 50 percent of her shots from the floor (17-of-36) and hit a stellar 90 percent from the free throw line (18-of-20).

Berezhynska has compiled four consecutive double-doubles and has reached the 20-point plateau in four of her last five outings.

The 23 points against East Carolina allowed Berezhynska to surpass Krystal Frazier (2004-07) and moved into 11th place on Rice's career scoring list.

With Rice behind 39-29 with 16 minutes left in the second half against ECU, Berezhynska scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the second half. She also grabbed 19 rebounds and added career-best five steals.

The Ukraine native opened the weekend by racking up 23 points and matched a career-best 20 rebounds. The 20 rebounds also equaled a C-USA high for the season. On the defensive end, Berezhynska also matched a career-best four blocks.

This is Berezhynska third player of the week honor this season.