Simon Fraser University women’s basketball alumna Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe was named the EuroBasket player of the week for round 13 of the Swiss season.
The 6-2 forward was a major part of her team, Pully, holding on to fifth place in the Swiss LNA, as she led her team in their last game with 29 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Raincock-Ekunwe is one of the team’s top players in her rookie season with the team, averaging 19.5 points and 12.8 rebounds per game.
With the Clan, she was a 2013 NCAA Div II All-American, and the national leader in field-goal percentage. Raincock-Ekunwe holds over eight Great Northwest Athletic Conference records, including most career double-doubles with 63.
The EuroBasket player of the week is chosen based on efficiency calculation, as well as game result and importance of the game among other factors.
Raincock-Ekunwe's player of the week nod comes in the same week that current Clan player Erin Chambers was named the Great Northwest conferernce player of the week.
The Clan junior earned the honour following her combined 64-point weekend in back-to-back wins over the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks and the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves.
Over the weekend, the guard-forward shot .629 (22-35) from the floor and .412 (7-17) from beyond the arc, as well as going 13-14 from the free throw line.
“I never really pay attention to the points when I play,” said Chambers in a press release. “I just play what comes at me and take what I can. If we are struggling I might look to focus on shooting, but mainly I just read the court.”
Against the Nanooks, Chambers had 30 points and five rebounds, helping SFU erase a 16-point deficit in the Clan’s 75-73 victory. She followed that on Saturday with 34 points, five rebounds and three assists as SFU beat the Seawolves, 78-74.
Chambers and the now 6-3 Clan host two big games this weekend as Seattle Pacific and Montana State-Billings come to the West Gym as the top four teams in the conference battle it out.
Along with SFU’s border rival Western Washington, SPU and MSUB also boast 6-3 GNAC records.
“We’ve played both these teams this season and they were both hard fought games,” added Chambers. “It’s really just owning what we do well and if we work together we can come up with two big wins.”
The two games are part of a four-game weekend in the West Gym, as the men host Alaska Anchorage on Thursday at 5:15 p.m. followed by the women against SPU at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday night the women play first against the Yellowjackets at 5:15 p.m. before the men close out the weekend at 7:30 p.m. against Alaska Fairbanks.
“These games are huge – we win and we are first in the conference, while two losses put us down near seventh,” said Chambers. “All the girls know the stakes and we are ready to get down into it and play two hard-fought games.”
