SPOKANE, Wash. – Freshman guard
Nicole Hartzog (Beaverton, Ore./Beaverton) was honored by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference as the women's basketball Co-Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday morning.
“Nicole does an outstanding job reading passes, making steals and then converting on layups,” head coach
Cody Burgess said. “She excels at the free throw line and she's just an all-around good player, so we're proud of her and her getting this award is good for the team.”
She helped the Nanooks to a pair of home wins over Saint Martin's (62-51) and Western Oregon (69-68) last week, marking the first time since the final two home games of the 2007-08 regular season that they had a 2-0 week in the GNAC.
Hartzog tallied 14.5 points per game, including a game-high 18 points in Saturday's thrilling 69-68 win against WOU. The rookie connected on all nine free throw attempts for the week, upping her season average to just under 77-percent from the line. She also had nine steals and 10 rebounds between the two games.
The Beaverton, Ore., product is currently the team's second leading scorer (11.2 ppg) and averages a team-best 2.6 steals per outing, which ranks second in the conference.
“Hopefully she continues to do what she does and becomes more familiar and comfortable in this conference with the competitive teams we face,” Burgess said. “Her defense is so solid that I trust her to guard anybody which helps her convert buckets on the other end. She's doing a great job for us.”
Hartzog shared the accolade with Northwest Nazarene's
Alla Dzhidzhiyeshvili, who also led the Crusaders to wins against Simon Fraser and Western Washington.
The Co-Players of the Week will hit the court against one another Saturday afternoon when NNU visits the Patty Center, following Alaska's Thursday night matchup versus Central Washington.
