INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – For the season’s tenth weekly women’s awards from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, for games ending Sunday, Feb. 12, Villanova forward Maddy Siegrist, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, and Virginia Tech guard Georgia Amoore, are co-players of the week, Maryland guard Bri McDaniel is the freshman recipient, and South Carolina is the National Team of the Week.
The awards, organized under Mel Greenberg, the USBWA Vice President for women’s basketball, are drawn from the weekly conference citations as well as at-large additions.
Each week awards go to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Women’s national player, the organization’s Tamika Catchings freshman player, and the USBWA’s women’s team of the week.
Siegrist, a 6-2 senior forward from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and past USBWA multi-time honoree, averaged 38.5 points and 11.0 rebounds while shooting .630 from the field in wins over Georgetown and Seton Hall and rewrote a host of records. The nation’s leading scorer (29.1), after collecting 27 points on the Hoyas, scored 50 on the Pirates, shooting 20-for-26 from the field, including 4-of-6 from deep, and 6-of-8 from the line. This week she extended her conference career mark with her 16th player of the week honor.
Already holding the combined ‘Nova men’s and women’s scoring record and Philadelphia Big Five women’s milestone set last month, in the Seton Hall contest with the 50-point achievement she set the Big East career record for regular-season league games, the single-game conference mark for field goals and scoring, the Villanova single-game record, and best-ever game performance at any of the Philly Six schools. She’s now 11 points short of the Philly Six women’s mark held by Drexel’s Gabriela Marginean.
Amoore, a 5-6 guard from Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, averaged 26.0 points and 7.5 assists, besides shooting 18-for-35 (51.4 percent), including 11-of-22 from 3-point territory, in two wins over then-No. 22 NC State – the Hokies’ first-ever at Reynolds Coliseum – and then-No. 19 Florida State to also pick up Atlantic Coast Conference player of the week honors. She had a personal best 27 points in the win over the Wolfpack and then collected 25 points – including her 1,000th – against the Seminoles.
McDaniel, a 5-10 freshman guard from Chicago, Ill., averaged 11.0 points, three steals, and 2.5 rebounds, in wins in the Big Ten over Northwestern and Illinois. Against the Wildcats she was 5-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-6 from deep, while back home against the Illini, she was 2-for-4 from the field, and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line.
In the battle of the last two unbeaten teams in the nation, courtesy of the Southeastern Conference schedule, top-ranked South Carolina, the reigning NCAA champions, before a sellout Gamecocks crowd, wasted little time asserting themselves over then-No. 3 LSU, jumping to an 18-2 lead Sunday. The differential several times shrunk to five before Dawn Staley’s squad applied the hammer in the third period on the way to an 88-64 victory. Earlier in the week, they gained an easy 83-48 win at Auburn. The Gamecocks are now 25-0 and 12-0 in the SEC with a 31-game win streak. In Monday’s AP women’s poll, they received their 34th straight No. 1 ranking, tied with UConn for third-longest streak. The Huskies also have the best at 51 weeks followed by Louisiana Tech at 36 weeks.
Since the 1987-88 season, the USBWA has named a women’s National Player of the Year. For the 2012-13 season, the national and weekly player award became named for Hall of Famer and former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers Drysdale while the national and weekly freshman award is being given in the name of former Tennessee all-American Tamika Catchings, which was applied at the start of the 2019-20 season.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name finalists for both individual awards, which is voted on by the entire membership of the USBWA.
The winners of the 2023 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year and Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year will be announced and presented at the USBWA’s annual awards event on site at the 2023 NCAA Women's Final Four in Dallas.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected a women's All-America team since the 1996-97 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.