INDIANAPOLIS -- UIC junior Ruvanna Campbell (Chicago, Ill.) is the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week while Valparaiso’s Dani Franklin (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is the Freshman of the Week for the week of Nov. 17-23.
The UIC (3-0, 0-0) women’s basketball team played two contests this past week to against teams in the Mid-American Conference to remain undefeated for the year. The Flames faced Northern Illinois Monday night at home and dominated the matchup, leading by as many as 19 points in the second half. UIC picked up the victory, 61-47, while out-rebounding the Huskies 45-32 and scoring 15 second-chance points. The squad continued its winning ways Saturday on the road defeating Miami Ohio 72-69. The back-and-forth contest consisted of 12 ties and 16 lead changes before the Flames moved to 3-0 on the season for the first time since their 2011-12 campaign.
Campbell led the Flames throughout the week, collecting a double-double in each contest to mark seven-straight dating back to last season. The junior dominated the glass against NIU, grabbing a career-high 23 rebounds for the second-highest single game rebounding performance in program history. Versus the Huskies, Campbell also added a game-high 15 points, eight assists, three blocks and two steals. At Miami, Campbell tabbed her 20th-consecutive double-figure rebounding performance collecting 18 while also scoring 16 points to clinch the double-double. In addition, she snatched a career-high eight steals in the close win over the RedHawks. For the two contests, the junior averaged 15.5 ppg, 20.5 rpg, 4.5 apg, 4.5 spg and 1.5 bpg in her 75 total minutes on the court.
Valparaiso (3-1, 0-0) split its road contests this past week, falling to Indiana Tuesday night and bouncing back to claim a 65-50 victory at NIU Thursday. On Saturday, the Crusaders hosted Tennessee Tech and picked up a 79-61 win to notch the squads’ third win of the season. The Crusaders went 11-for-18 from behind the arc against the Huskies good for 61.1% on the night. The team carried its three-point sharp shooting to Saturday’s match versus the Golden Eagles, going 10-of-18 (54.5%) from three-point range in the first half and 2-of-4 in the second.
Franklin continued the put the ball in the basket for Valparaiso, reaching double figures in each contest this season, respectively. The freshman notched her first-career double-double on the road facing NIU collecting 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in 28 minutes off of the bench. She also tallied 12 points and six rebounds at home against Tennessee Tech and 11 points and eight rebounds on the road at Indiana. Throughout the teams’ three games this week, the freshman averaged 12.0 ppg, 8.7 rpg and 23 minutes per contest.
UIC travels to Northwestern for its next contest on Nov. 26 for a 1:00 p.m. ET tip-off and continues on the road to face Illinois-Springfield on Nov. 30. Valparaiso hits the road to face Akron on Nov. 25 for a 7:00 p.m. start time and hosts No. 12 Louisville Sunday afternoon at 2:35 p.m. ET.
Top Players of the Week:
Indiya Benjamin, Youngstown State (Fr., G): Scored 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting and dished out three assists against Kent State. Went 6-for-11 in scoring for 16 points versus Radford with five rebounds and six assists.
Cori Coleman, Cleveland State (Sr., G): Led the team with 15.0 ppg throughout the week and now ranks 16th on the Cleveland State career scoring list with 1,136.
Ellisha Crosby, Detroit (Sr., G): Led Detroit with 16 points against St. Bonaventure and 12 points against Ohio.
Ashley Green, Milwaukee (Sr., F/G): Scored 30 points in the loss against North Dakota and posted her second double-double in three games with 23 points and 10 rebounds versus Bowling Green. She now averages 26.5 ppg and 8.0 rpg on the year.
Mehryn Kraker, Green Bay (So., G): Tallied a double-double in the team’s win over No. 25 Purdue and led the team in rebounding throughout the week with 19 and four blocks.
Lexi Miller, Valparaiso (Jr., G): Led the Crusaders in scoring with 17 points in their win over Northern Illinois. The junior possesses the best
assist-to-turnover ratio on the team (17:7).
Tay’ler Mingo, Wright State (Sr., G): Against Murray State, scored 17 points while tallying eight assists and five steals. Posted a career-high eight rebounds versus Southern Illinois while scoring 24 points and garnering three steals.
Olivia Nash, Oakland (Jr., F): Tallied 11 points and 11 rebounds in the team’s first win over Chicago State to record her 17th career double-double.
Top Freshmen of the Week:
Ashanti Abshaw, Cleveland State (G): Posted seven points and five rebounds versus Minnesota and five points and four rebounds against FIU.
Darianne Seward, Detroit (G): Had 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals while facing Ohio on the road. Scored six points and tallied two rebounds in the game against St. Bonaventure.
Leah Somerfield, Oakland (F): Scored a team-high 12 points in her second-career game and had five points and five rebounds against Chicago State.
JJ Williams, Wright State (G): Scored six points against Murray State and seven points and two rebounds facing Southern Illinois.
Players of the Week
Tay’ler Mingo, Wright State (Sr., G)
Ruvanna Campbell, UIC (Jr., F)
Freshmen of the Week
Nikki Arbanas, Youngstown State (Fr., G)
Dani Franklin, Valparaiso (Fr., G)
