WNBA names players of the week
Published on September 15, 2008 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) News Release
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2008 - Tammy Sutton-Brown of the Indiana Fever and Ann Wauters of the San Antonio Silver Stars were named the WNBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Sept. 8 through Sunday, Sept. 14.
Sutton-Brown earns her first career Player of the Week award after averaging 19.0 points and 6.8 rebounds on 58.3 percent (28-48) shooting from the field. On the week, the Fever went 3-1 with wins over Atlanta, New York and Phoenix to even their record at 17-17 as the regular season concludes. The week marked the only time in 2008 that Indiana won three games in a week.
Sutton-Brown capped her week by leading the Fever with 26 points in the team's 103-89 victory over the Mercury. With 103 points, Indiana set a franchise record for points in a game. Her 26 points marked broke her previous career high of 23 which she set on June 26 at New York. In the Fever's lone loss this week, she recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. In each of the week's four games, she scored in double figures tying her longest such stretch of the season.
A two-time WNBA All-Star, Sutton-Brown averaged 11.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in 2008 while helping the Fever to the playoffs. She ranked fourth in the league in blocks per game and third in total blocks on the season. Her three blocks in the Fever's penultimate game gave her a franchise record for blocks in a season with 57.
Wauters also picks up the first Player of the Week award of her career following a week in which she averaged 15.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 61.3 percent (19-31) on field goals. San Antonio concluded the 2008 regular season with a five-game winning streak, including victories over three playoff teams (New York, Connecticut and Sacramento). Wauters is the third Silver Stars player to earn Player of the Week in 2008, along with Sophia Young and Becky Hammon.
Wauters led the team in rebounds against Connecticut and New York with 15 and 10, respectively, and then paced the team in scoring with 18 points against Sacramento in the regular season finale. Against the Monarchs, Wauters was flawless from the field, finishing 9-for-9 in the 77-69 win. Her 15 rebounds against Connecticut marked a career high to break her previous record of 14 which she set June 18 at Atlanta.
In her sixth season, she averaged career highs in points (14.7 ppg), rebounds (7.5 rpg), assists (1.8 apg), steals (1.1 spg) and blocks (1.2 bpg). On the year, she tied for third in the league in double-doubles with nine and finished fifth among league leaders in rebounds. The former No. 1 overall pick of the Cleveland Rockers, she returned to the league in 2008 after electing to play overseas only following the 2005 season when she last played for New York. Her rights were selected by Atlanta in the 2008 WNBA Expansion Draft and she was subsequently traded to San Antonio on April 9 where she was reunited with Dan Hughes, her coach with Cleveland.
Other candidates for WNBA Players of the Week were Atlanta's Iziane Castro Marques, Los Angeles' DeLisha Milton-Jones, Minnesota's Charde Houston, Phoenix's Cappie Pondexter, Sacramento's Kara Lawson, Seattle's Katie Gearlds and Washington's Monique Currie.
Women's National Basketball Association Stories from September 15, 2008
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- Wauters Tabbed Western Conference Player Of The Week - San Antonio Stars
- WNBA names players of the week - WNBA
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