Washington State University Athletics
Deja Vu, Molina Named Pac-12 Freshman Of The Week Again
January 09, 2017 | Women's Basketball
Chanelle Molina took home her second-straight conference honor.
PULLMAN, Wash. – For the second time in as many weeks, freshman Chanelle Molina was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, the conference announced Monday, Jan. 9. Molina became the second repeat winner of the award, following Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu who took home the honor in in back-to-back weeks on Nov. 21 and Nov. 28.
The last Cougar to repeat the award was Borislava Hristova who was named the conference's top freshman on Jan. 19 and Jan. 25 of last season.
For Molina, the weekend started with a bang as the first-year point guard led the Cougars to their biggest upset in program history, knocking off No. 7 UCLA, 82-73, on Friday night. Molina put together a monster performance against the Bruins scoring 33 points on 13-of-20 shooting, scoring the most points against the Bruins since 2003. The 33 points tied a freshmen single-game record for the Cougars as Molina's epic night matched Lia Galdeira's freshmen record set against Minnesota in 2012. Additionally, her 33 points on the night tied for the 10th best scoring game in program history as she became just the third freshman ever to reach the 30-point threshold.
With one epic performance under her belt, Molina came back two days later and led the Cougars to a decisive, 74-57, win over USC on Sunday afternoon. The win over the Trojans gave WSU its first sweep of the Pac-12's LA schools since the start of the conference campaign in the 1994-95 season. Against the Trojans, Molina scored 16 points, 14 coming in the second half, while going 6-for-7 from the floor.
On the weekend, Molina averaged a cool 24.5 points per game while shooting an astounding 70.4% from the floor, a mark rarely seen for a jump-shooter. She finished the weekend with a 10-4 assist-turnover mark including dishing out a career-best seven assists against the Bruins.
Molina bumped her season scoring average to 12.8 points per game having scored in double-figures in 11-consecutive contests. She leads the team in shooting at 52.9% while hitting 43.8% of her three-point attempts.
Washington State will next take its 2017 win-streak on the road to No. 19 Arizona State where the two teams will face off in a morning contest, Friday, January 13. The game is scheduled for a 10 a.m. PT tip from Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
