SMU women’s basketball’s Dodds named player of the week

by PegNews wire

Senior post Janielle Dodds, who helped the SMU women's basketball team extend its current winning streak to seven games and helped her team win a school-record 21 regular-season games, was named Conference USA Co-Player of the Week.

For Dodds, a preseason first-team Conference USA selection who shared the honor this week with UTEP guard Jareica Hughes, the honor is her second from the conference this season. She won the award outright Nov. 26.

Dodds averaged 22.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in the Mustangs victories over Rice and Houston. She shot .625 from the floor (15-of-24) from the floor and a sizzling .938 (15-of-16) from the free throw line. She also added three assists, three steals and a pair of blocked shots in the victories.

In the process, Dodds crept closer to the two most high-profile records in SMU history. She now has scored 1,772 points in her career, and needs just 14 to break Karlin Kennedy's SMU record. She also passed Shasta Smothers-Johnson to move into second place all-time with 936 rebounds, and needs just 11 more to break Kennedy's career record.

Dodds and her co-honoree will face off this week in a meeting of the top two teams in Conference USA. SMU (21-6 overall and 11-3 in Conference USA games), which earned votes in the new Associated Press poll released Monday, travels west this week to face Hughes and the No. 19 UTEP Miners (23-2, 14-0) at 7 p.m. (central time) in a clash between two teams jockeying for postseason tournament bids. The Mustangs then close out the regular season at 5 p.m. (central time) Saturday in New Orleans against defending C-USA champion Tulane.

Both games can be seen on CSTV, and also will be carried live on KKGM (1630 AM).

Source: SMU