Maine’s Bracey Barker (Bar Harbor, Maine/Mount Desert Island) and Mykeema Ford (Trenton, N.J./Trenton) of Stony Brook share this week’s Wilson Player of the Week honor, while after two weeks of sharing the award with Boston University’s Corinne Jean (Victoriaville, Quebec/College Montemorency), Shaleyse Smallwood (Boston, Mass./O’Bryant) of Northeastern garners the Rookie of the Week accolade all by herself.
Barker had the best game of her collegiate career, scoring a career-high 26 points to lead Maine past host Buffalo, 69-57. She also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, recorded three blocks and tallied three steals. From the floor, Barker was 9-of-12. After the Bulls snatched their first lead since the game’s opening moments, 43-40, with 14:16 to go in the second half, the Black Bears used a 14-0 run, featuring seven points from Barker, to take the lead and pull away. She started the stretch, draining a three to tie the game.
Ford kept her conference-best 12-game double-digit scoring streak alive with three great performances on the week. She averaged 22.7 points and 5.7 assists per games over the three outings. She kicked off the week by netting a season-high 26 points at Delaware, and followed up that by collecting 24 points and seven assists versus Pittsburgh and 18 points and eight assists against Long Beach State.
Smallwood continued her streak with double-digits in every game this season with 13 against Buffalo and 14 at Boston College. Smallwood was 2-of-4 from the field against Buffalo, but was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. The freshman guard added four rebounds and three assists to her 14-point effort at Boston College. Smallwood continues to lead the Huskies in scoring with 14.0 points per game and is second on the team with 16 steals.