DENVER ? Utah State’s Taylor Richards has been named the Western Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 8. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for the junior and the first ever WAC Player of the Week honor for the Aggies.
Taylor, a guard from West Valley, Utah (Hunter) scored a career-high 28 points, including 17 in the second half, of Utah State’s 81-75 overtime win over Fresno State on Jan. 6. In the game, she also dished out four assists to give her 249 for her career and became USU’s career assists leader, passing Pam Shirley (1977-79) with 245 assists. She also had four steals in the contest and also made a career-high 10 free throws, finishing the night 10-11. In the Jan. 4 loss to Boise State, Richards had 11 points to go with five assists and three steals.
In the Aggies’ two games, Richards shot 50.0 percent (13-of-26) from the field, including 2-of-5 (40.0 percent) from three-point range, hitting 2-of-3 Saturday. Richards’ 28 points was the most scored by an Aggie under head coach Raegan Pebley since Christina Zdenek tallied 31 in a USU win on Jan. 10, 2004 over Cal Poly.
Other nominees included: Jessica Thompson of Boise State scored 24 points in a win against Utah State ... Sara Dennehy of Idaho averaged 21.0 points per game, scoring a career-high 25 points in a loss to Nevada ... Ty Moore of Louisiana Tech averaged 12.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in the Lady Techsters’ wins over San Jose State and Hawai?i ... Traci Graham of Nevada averaged 15.5 points as the Wolf Pack split games last week ... Monique Bribiescas of New Mexico State scored 22 points in two games as the Aggies won their first two WAC contests.