By JOEL CARLSON for GoGriz.com
Montana redshirt senior Kellie Rubel turned a scoring milestone and a big week with two wins into her second Big Sky Conference Player of the Week award of the season.
It was the fifth time in her career the point guard has been recognized, the fourth-highest total in program history. Mandy Morales was honored 13 times in her career, Shannon Cate nine times, Hollie Tyler eight times.
Rubel averaged 19.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists last week as the Lady Griz picked up home wins over Weber State and Idaho State. The victories gave Montana eight wins in its last nine games.
In Thursday’s 53-43 victory over the Wildcats, Rubel entered the game with 998 career points. She wasted little time becoming the 31st player in Lady Griz history to reach 1,000 when she connected on a jumper less than two minutes into the game.
Rubel played a game-high 38 minutes and totaled 16 points, six rebounds and three assists.
In Saturday’s 77-65 victory over the Bengals, who had won at Montana State Thursday night, Rubel scored Montana’s first seven points, and the Lady Griz never trailed to improve to 3-1 in league, 10-5 overall.
Rubel, who played a game-high 37 minutes, finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. She reached 20 points for the second time this season and the 12th time in her career.
Rubel leads Montana in scoring (13.5/g), assists (4.6/g) and steals (1.7/g), and is third in rebounding (5.3/g).
The Lady Griz are tied for second in the Big Sky Conference standings with Sacramento State (5-10, 3-1 BSC). Both teams trail Eastern Washington (10-4, 3-0 BSC), the league’s only unbeaten through two weeks of conference games.
Southern Utah (9-4, 2-1 BSC) and Northern Arizona (6-8, 2-1 BSC) also have just one league loss.
Montana will host Montana State (7-8, 1-3 BSC) Saturday at 2 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena in the only game of the week for both teams.
Montana Sports Information