Pac-12 Awards: UCLA's Christeen Iwuala Earns Freshman of the Week
For the first time since 2015, the Bruins have posted back-to-back freshmen of the week.
The Pac-12 announced its weekly awards on Monday afternoon and No. 10 UCLA women's basketball (9-1) forward Christeen Iwuala took home Freshman of the Week honors. The 6-foot-2 post's award win comes just a week after freshman guard Kiki Rice earned the same distinction.
The San Antonio, Texas, native beat out Oregon State's Raegan Beers, Arizona's Maya Nnaji and Colorado's Jada Wynn to claim the fourth weekly award for a UCLA player five weeks into the 2022-23 campaign. It is also the 10th Pac-12 Freshman of the Week victory for the program all-time.
Iwuala and Rice's consecutive Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards mark the first time the blue and gold have achieved the feat since 2015, when Jordin Canada won it twice. UCLA men's basketball, meanwhile, has put forward three straight Pac-12 Freshman of the Week winners in guards Amari Bailey and Dylan Andrews.
The Bruins only played one game during the week of Dec. 4 to 10 due to the school's final exams schedule. UCLA defeated Cal State Fullerton 64-41 at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night, and Iwuala established new career highs in minutes, points and rebounds.
The former four-star prospect played 22 minutes off the bench, scoring 10 points and securing eight rebounds. In the fourth quarter, Iwuala scored six of the Bruins' final 13 points to close out the contest.
Iwuala finished the game as UCLA's third-highest scorer in the game and as the third-best rebounder, just below guard Gina Conti and forward Gabriela Jaquez's nine rebounds each.
The previous week, the Ronald Raegan High School (TX) product missed matchups against No. 1 South Carolina and UC Santa Barbara. She ultimately made her return against Cal State Fullerton and capped it off with some hardware.
Iwuala is averaging 4.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 0.6 blocks per game on the season, while shooting 38.2% from the field and 76.9% from the free throw line.
In the Pac-12 Player of the Week category, Rice was nominated for the award, but lost out to Oregon's Endyia Rogers.
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