These women’s basketball players posted big-time performances and were named to the NCAA.com starting five this week.
Ashley Hawkins, Gardner-Webb
Gardner-Webb senior guard Ashley Hawkins led the Bulldogs to a pair of wins last week, averaging 29.0 points per game as Gardner-Webb stretch its winning streak to three straight.
In two important games, Hawkins played perhaps her best of the season. On Feb. 5 against UNC Asheville, the Long Beach, Calif. native finished with 28 points on 7-of-12 shooting, dished out five assists, and pulled down three rebounds all while going 12-of-13 at the line as Gardner-Webb gutted out a 79-72 win. In the victory, Hawkins scored the last 14 points in a row for the Bulldogs.
On the road at Charleston Southern on Saturday afternoon, Hawkins scored 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting, dished out five more assists, and pulled down three more rebounds as the Bulldogs finished off a third straight win, 64-51.
Hawkins continues to lead the Big South Conference in minutes played, scoring and assists, averaging 19.2 points per game next to 5.0 assists per game all while seeing the court for 36.1 minutes per contest.
Gardner-Webb, 10-13 overall and 7-4 in Big South play, will return to action on Feb. 15 when the Bulldogs visit USC Upstate.
Aziaha James, NC State
Aziaha James was instrumental in NC State’s back-to-back wins over two top 25 opponents this past week, averaging 29.0 points per game on 64.9 percent shooting, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
James scored a career-high 36 points on just 19 shots (15-of-19 from the field) against No. 10 Duke, while scoring 27 of those points in the second half of the 89-83 victory. She added six rebounds and one block and steal. Her 36 points were the most for an NC State player since 1998 (Chasity Melvin vs. Louisiana Tech) and the fifth most scored in a game by an Atlantic Coast Conference player this season. Those 36 points also equaled or were more to points scored by a team in four ACC games this season.
She followed that up with her 11th 20-point game of the season with 22 points, shooting 9-of-18 from the field in a 97-74 win at No. 22 Florida State on Sunday. James added five rebounds, two assists and three steals.
This season, James is averaging 18.0 points per game behind 46.8 percent shooting (159-of-340) and 32.9 percent (47-of-143) from 3-point with 4.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Her scoring average is the fifth best in the ACC and she is No. 20 on the all-time scoring list at NC State with 1,375 career points.
The Wolfpack, 19-4 overall and 11-1 in ACC play, will next host Miami (FL) on Feb. 13.
Grace Larkins, South Dakota
South Dakota senior guard Grace Larkins broke her own school record, and in the process the Summit League record, for points in a game Saturday at North Dakota State, scoring 47 points on 17-of-27 shooting, adding 11 points at the free throw line, to break her school record of 45 points in a single game.
South Dakota came up short against North Dakota State, 75-65 despite Larkins’ effort. The 47 points were the most ever scored by a Summit League player in a single game as the previous record was 46.
Larkins also recorded a double-double on Feb. 6 against Oral Roberts, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in an 88-62 setback.
For the week, Larkins averaged 30 points and 9.5 rebounds and is now third in Division I scoring 24.8 points per game. Larkins is closing in on several career scoring milestones and needs just 33 points to become the third player to pass 2,000 career points in a Coyote uniform, 89 points to become second in South Dakota history in scoring and 175 points to become the all-time leading scorer in school history.
Larkins and the Coyotes, 10-15 overall and 4-7 in Summit play, have five games remaining on their regular season schedule, starting with a Feb. 12 game at home against Kansas City.
Jakoriah Long, Tarleton State
Tarleton State senior guard Jakoriah Long scored 25 points in back-to-back games last week as the Texans stretched its winning streak to five straight games.
Over the two wins against Seattle University and Utah Valley, Long connected on 13 3-point field goals, shooting 59.1 percent from 3-point range and 53.6% from the floor overall.
Long set a Tarleton State Division I era single game program record with seven made 3-pointers in a 77-46 win over Seattle on Feb. 6. She had an encore performance on Saturday against Utah Valley, hitting six 3-pointers and scoring 25 points to lead the Texans to a come-from-behind 68-61 win over the Wolverines.
Long, who has now posted three straight games of 20-or-more points, becoming the first Texan in the Division I era to post two consecutive 25-point games. She is the first Texan since the 2013-14 season to post back-to-back games with at least 25 points (Kiara Wright, Feb. 5-8, 2014).
Tarleton State, 16-9 overall and 7-3 in the Western Athletic Conference, will go on the road this week, playing at Grand Canyon on Feb. 13. Grand Canyon is currently in first place in the WAC standings and received votes in the top 25 national poll on Monday.
Laura Ziegler, Saint Joseph’s
Saint Joseph’s junior Laura Ziegler set a program record with 43 points against Loyola Chicago and averaged 35.0 points per game in leading the Hawks to a pair of victories last week.
Ziegler led the Hawks to wins over Saint Louis and Loyola Chicago, recording back-to-back dominant performances, averaging 35.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game while shooting an impressive 61.2% from the field on the week.
The forward’s week was highlighted by a career-best 43-point explosion against Loyola Chicago, breaking Dale Hodges’ program record of 42 points against Temple (Jan. 31, 1990) that stood for 35 years. Ziegler finished 65.4 percent from the field after connecting on 17 of her 26 attempts while connecting on all six free throw attempts in the 83-45 win. The 43-point performance was just the fourth time in program history that a Hawk scored at least 40 points in a game, Hodges recording all three previous games. Ziegler’s output also finished as the second-most scored by an Atlantic 10 Conference player, the most since 1987.
Ziegler opened her week on Feb. 5 with a 27-point, 10-rebound effort to collect her 17th double-double of the season in a 69-49 win over St. Louis. Ziegler added four assists, three blocks and a steal in the win over the Billikens.
The Herlev, Denmark native was recently named to the USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Player of the Year Watch List. Ziegler leads the Hawks in scoring (18.7), rebounding (11.6), assists (4.3) and blocks (1.1) per game.
Saint Joseph’s, 20-4 overall and 11-2 in Atlantic 10 play, will return to action on Feb. 13 at Richmond.
