Morgan Bertsch named Big West Player of the Week

The high-scoring Aggie takes home the hardware.

UC Davis’ Morgan Bertsch was named the Big West Conference Player of the week for games played last week. It is the fifth time in her career that Bertsch has taken home this honor.

In the two games played last week, both of them wins, Bertsch put up 34 points per game on 58.6 percent shooting from the field. She also averaged 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.

Bertsch had the best game of her career during that span when she dropped a career-best 40 points in a win over Sacramento State. She shot 16-28 from the field in that game and 8-8 from the free-throw line. Not only was the game her personal best, but she broke the Aggies school record for most points scored in game.

She followed that up with 28 points on 60 percent shooting in a win over Seattle. She pulled down five rebounds in that game and blocked two shots.

Bertsch has exploded onto the scene this season, emerging as one of the best players in the Big West. She’s steadily improved each season at UC Davis with this one, her senior year, being the best yet. She’s become the school’s all-time scorer. She’s also third in the nation in scoring with 24.4 points per game, behind only Buffalo’s Cierra Dillard and Arizona’s Aari McDonald.

She is a very versatile offensive threat. While she is a traditional post player, she can shoot midrange jumpers and beat her defenders off the dribble on the way to the rim. Although she does not shoot many threes, she is shooting 53.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Bertsch’s ascent to stardom is particularly noticeable as she wasn’t being recruited at all by Division 1 schools. She had some Division 2 interest and never played AAU basketball. UC Davis took a chance on her.

Although Bertsch has been quite the player for the Aggies, they’ve started slow this season and currently sit at 5-5. Their next game is Sat, Dec. 15 at San Francisco.