New Hampshire’s Maren Matthias (Guilford, Conn./Guilford) and Vermont’s Aaron Yantzi (Waterloo, Ontario/Waterloo-Oxford) share this week’s Player of the Week honor, while Ikea Witt (Vineland, N.J./Sacred Heart) of Hartford and New Hampshire’s Ray Williams (Mississauga, Ontario/The Woodlands School) do the same with the Rookie of the Week award.
Matthias opened up the season by scoring 24 points and grabbing six rebounds in just 23 minutes in an 86-85 win over St. Bonaventure and followed that up with 27 points and 12 rebounds in UNH’s near-upset of Georgetown. Against the Bonnies, Matthias was limited to five minutes in the first half due to foul trouble but scored 20 of her points after intermission, going 10-of-14 from the field for the game and 4-of-4 from the line. Against the Hoyas Matthias hit a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds to go that gave UNH a 60-59 lead.
Yantzi led Vermont to a 2-0 record on the week with back-to-back double-doubles and now has four on the season through as many games. She scored 18 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to lead the Catamounts to their first road win of the year at Yale before netting a game-high 27 points, 20 in the first half, and grabbing 10 rebounds to help UVM hand Colgate its first loss of the year. Yantzi was 18-for-29 (.621) from the field and 9-for-11 (.818) from the line for the week. She also handed out eight assists and made three steals while playing 40 minutes in each game.
Witt averaged 13.0 ppg and 3.7 rebounds per game as the Hawks went 2-1 at the Rainbow Wahine Classic over the weekend. Witt recorded 14 points, four rebounds and four assists in a 79-76 overtime victory against host Hawaii before posting 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in a 74-63 upset of Virginia in the third-place game. She also added nine points and four rebounds against Montana. The freshman shot 50 percent from the field (15-of-30) over those three games. Witt, who has scored in double figures in four of her first five career games, leads the team in scoring (13.8 ppg) and field goal percentage (54 percent – 27-of-50) while playing just 24.8 minutes per game off the bench.
Williams opened her career with a 16-point, five-rebound effort in an 86-85 win over St. Bonaventure and then followed that up with 11 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals in UNH’s near-upset of Georgetown. The 16 points by Williams in her first game is the most by any UNH freshman in history playing in their first career game. Williams had 14 of her 16 points against the Bonnies in the first half when Maren Matthias was forced to the bench due to foul trouble. Williams was 12-of-15 (80 percent) from the floor for the week, going 7-of-9 against St. Bonaventure and 5-of-6 against Georgetown.