It’s been a while since her last one but South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson was named SEC player of the week for the third time this season, tying her with Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan for the most awards this season. Meanwhile the freshman of the week award went to a Kentucky Wildcat, Dorie Harrison, the first time the program has had a player honored this season.
Wilson continued to rewrite South Carolina record books last week as she became the program’s all-time leading scorer in SEC play while also joining the 2,000 point/1,000 rebounds club, just the second Gamecock in history to do so. In a win over Arkansas, Wilson recorded seven blocks, a season high for anyone in the SEC, while also scoring 27 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. She followed up that performance with 15 points and 15 rebounds against Missouri, a pairing that must now be considered a budding rivalry in the conference. Wilson played all but one minutes against the Tigers, a game that moved the Gamecocks into sole possession of third place in the conference with a 7-2 record. For the week, Wilson averaged 21.0 points, 14.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 5.5 blocks. This is the first player of the week award for Wilson since the week of November 28, a testament to the rest of the league’s talent level.
After the loss of both Makayla Epps and Evelyn Akhator to graduation, it is not surprising to see Kentucky struggling this season. While there have been precious few reasons to celebrate in Lexington so far, that changed this week with the play of Dorie Harrison. A Nashville, TN native, Harrison scored a career high 15 points against Alabama in the Wildcats 79-54 beatdown of the Crimson Tide. Harrison then proceeded to set a new career high of 16 points in the next game in another Wildcat win, this time over Arkansas. Harrison has now scored double digits in three games straight and the Wildcats have won two straight for the first time since Dec. 3-5. Kentucky is now 11-11 (3-5) and currently sit in ninth place.