Jenna Allen Named USBWA National Player of the Week (PHOTO: MSU SID)

Jenna Allen Named National Player of the Week

Author:
Kara Fisher
Publish date:
Dec 11, 2018 7:56 AM EST

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State senior center Jenna Allen added to her honors after being named U.S. Basketball Writers Association Ann Meyers Drysdale Women's National Player of the Week on Tuesday. She also garnered ESPW and Big Ten Player of the week accolades on Monday.

She is the second player to capture the honor this year after UConn's Christyn Williams earned the season's first award.

Allen averaged 21.5 points on 17-of-24 shooting (.708 percent), including a 5-of-8 performance (.625 percent) from beyond the arc over two games last week. For the season, Allen is averaging career-highs across the board with 16.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. She is shooting a career-best .579 percent from the field and .500 percent from 3-point range.

In an upset over No. 3-ranked Oregon on December 9, Allen scored a season-high 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field in a career-high 37 minutes played. The Bedford, Indiana native was 3-of-4 from distance including a triple with 35 seconds left in regulation that all but sealed the game for the Spartans. Allen also hauled in a team-best seven rebounds in the winning effort.

Since the 1987-88 season, the USBWA has named a women's National Player of the Year. For the 2012-13 season, the national and weekly player award has been named for Hall of Famer and former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers Drysdale. At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name finalists for the award, which is voted on by the entire membership of the USBWA. The winner of the 2019 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year will be announced and presented at the USBWA's annual awards event in Tampa, site of the 2019 NCAA Women's Final Four.

Allen was 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-4 from three with four rebounds and four assists in a 102-58 rout of Oakland in the Spartans first game of the week on December.

Allen and the Spartans head to West Hartford, Connecticut this weekend to face the Hartford Hawks on Sunday, Dec. 16. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. (ET). Hartford is 4-5 on the season thus far and will face Rhode Island on Tuesday, Dec. 11 prior to meeting Michigan State.