March 4, 2013

All-Pac-12 Media Awards

STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike and Joslyn Tinkle were honored by Pac-12 media members who cover the league Monday, as the panel unanimously voted Ogwumike its Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year and tabbed Tinkle for its All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Defensive Teams.

Also on Monday Ogwumike was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for a Stanford and Pac-12 single-season record sixth time, following her 71.9-percent shooting and 26.0 points with 13.0 rebounds over Stanford's road sweep of Washington and Washington State. The wins helped the Cardinal clinch a share of its 13th consecutive and 22nd overall Pac-12 regular-season title.

The selection for Ogwumike was also her ninth career weekly conference honor, matching the all-time record shared by former Stanford standouts Candice Wiggins (2004-08) and Jayne Appel (2006-10).

No. 4/5 Stanford (28-2, 17-1 Pac-12), which shared the conference title with California, earned the top seed at this week's Pac-12 Tournament, set to be held March 7-10 at KeyArena in Seattle. The Cardinal, which has won 9 of 11 conference tournaments including the past six in a row, received a bye into Friday's (March 8) quarterfinal round, where at 6 p.m. it will take on the winner of Thursday's contest between No. 8 seed Washington State and No. 9 seed Arizona State. Friday's contest will be shown nationally on the Pac-12 Network.

On the year Ogwumike is the only player to rank in the national top five in scoring (22.9 ppg - third), rebounding (12.7 rpg), field-goal percentage (59.1 - second) and double-doubles (24 - second). She leads the Pac-12 in all categories as well.

Saturday at Washington State Ogwumike grabbed 13 rebounds to bring her season total to 381, surpassing the previous Stanford and Pac-12 record of 376 set in 2009-10 by older sister Nnemkadi Ogwumike. Chiney's 24 double-doubles this season and 52 for her career are also both Stanford records.

The record-setting for Ogwumike this year also includes the Stanford single-game rebounding mark of 24 which she set Feb. 24 against Oregon. That performance eclipsed the previous mark of 23 set by Nnemkadi against the Ducks on Jan. 23, 2010.

Chiney also became Stanford's sixth member of the 1,000-1,000 Club as she passed the 1,000-rebound mark against the Ducks during her record-setting effort.

Ogwumike, a consensus national player of the year candidate, has shown her might against some of the best the rest of the country has to offer. Over 10 games this season against Top-25 teams, she has averaged 21.3 points and 11.3 rebounds while shooting 53.5 percent as Stanford has gone 8-2, including a 71-69 victory over then-No. 1/1 Baylor on Nov. 16 in Honolulu.

Tinkle earned the media's votes thanks to her career year in 2012-13 in which she is averaging 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds with a Pac-12-best 1.90 blocked shots per game. The senior forward from Missoula, Mont. Is also shooting 47.5 percent from the field including a 31.1-percent clip from behind the arc.

Her senior season has included a pair of double-doubles as well as strong efforts against Top-25 opponents Baylor (11 points, four rebounds), Tennessee (10 points, three rebounds), UCLA (16 points andsix rebounds on Jan. 18, 10 points and nine rebounds on Feb. 17) and Colorado (13 points and six rebounds on Jan. 6, 16 points and five rebounds on Jan. 27).

Ogwumike and Tinkle, along with redshirt junior forward Mikaela Ruef, have been the stalwarts of a Cardinal defense which is on pace to hold opponents to school record-lows of 52.0 points per game and a 31.7 field-goal percentage.

In other Pac-12 media awards Oregon's Jillian Alleyne was voted Freshman of the Year and California's Lindsay Gottlieb was voted Coach of the Year.