AMANDA GRAPPE NAMED GSC WEST DIVISION PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON, 10TH TIME IN HER CAREER

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech All-American forward Amanda Grappe has been this week’s Gulf South Conference West Division Women’s Basketball Player of the Week by the league office in Birmingham, Ala.

The Player of the Week honor is the third of the season for Grappe and the 10th in her illustrious Golden Suns career. Grappe was previously honored by the league this season on Jan. 7 and Jan. 21.

Grappe, a 6-foot senior from Benton, Ark., earns this week’s Player of the Week honor after helping the Golden Suns go 1-1 last week and improve their record to 18-7 overall and 8-4 in the GSC. Tech opened the week with a 75-66 win at Ouachita Baptist last Thursday and then fell 73-60 at home last Saturday to Delta State. The win over OBU was the Lady Tigers first home loss of the season.  

For the week, Grappe recorded back-to-back 20 point games to give her 10 this season and 24 in her career. In Tech’s win over OBU, Grappe scored 26 points, including 22 points in the second half and then she added 22 points in the Golden Suns loss to Delta State. In addition to scoring 48 points for the week, Grappe also pulled down 15 rebounds in two games and shot 62 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line. Against DSU, Grappe went 12-for-13 free throw line to set a new school record for career free throws made (470) and she is three free throw attempts shy of becoming the school’s all-time leader in career free throw attempts.

On the season, Grappe, a Preseason All-GSC West Division selection and an Honorable Mention All-American last season, is averaging a GSC-best 19.1 points per game and is pulling down 7.8 rebounds and averaging 2.5 steals per game. She is shooting 54 percent from the field, 42 percent from the 3-point line and 78 percent from the free throw line and has scored in double figures in 24 of her 25 games this season. In addition, she recently became the 10th all-time leading scorer in Tech history with her 1,682 points and is now the school’s fourth all-time leading rebounder with 760 boards.

In addition to Grappe, West Georgia senior forward Ashley Huff was named the GSC East Division Player of the Week for the second time this season. Huff earns the honor scored 27 points in each of the Lady Wolves games last week as they clinched their second consecutive GSC East Division title. She also averaged double figures in rebounds and had five blocks and six assists on the week.

Grappe and the Golden Suns return to action on Thursday, Feb. 26, when they host Arkansas-Monticello (17-6 overall, 9-3 GSC) in a 5:30 p.m. contest at Tucker Coliseum. Grappe, along with Nikki Earles (Huntsville, Ark.) and Rachel Brazell (Mansfield, Texas) will honored following the game as part of Senior Night festivities.  

Weekly GSC Women's Basketball Release

 -- Tech Athletics --