NEWBA Awards Unveiled For Week of February 16

Mairead Hynes
Connecticut College
Freshman • Forward • Mahopac, N.Y.

Connecticut College first year forward Mairead Hynes is the NEWBA/Prestosports Player of the Week, after she averaged 24.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in a pair of NESCAC games this weekend. Hynes had 26 points and 16 rebounds in a close loss to Williams Friday. She added 23 points and 11 boards in a 58-52 triumph over Hamilton. Hynes connected at a 59% clip from the field (20-for-34) in the two games. Hynes is second in both NESCAC scoring and rebounding with 16.9 points and 10.3 boards per game. 

Smantha Alakai
Smith College
Freshman • Forward • Honolulu, Hawaii

Alakai set new career-highs in points and rebounds in Smith's 63-61 loss to Trinity College on Feb. 11, scoring 24 points and grabbing nine boards. She followed that performance up with 20 points, six rebounds and three assists against Babson College on Saturday, marking the 17th time in 22 games this season that the first-year from Honolulu, Hawaii has scored in double-figures for the Pioneers. For the week, Alakai averaged 22 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and one steal.

• Nina Davenport, Bates College (Fr., F, Freeport, Maine) - Bates first-year forward Nina Davenport (Freeport, Maine) scored 34 points in Bates' 74-67 loss to Bowdoin on Friday, adding nine rebounds, three steals and a block. The following day in Bates' 77-67 win over Colby, Davenport had 17 points, 13 boards, three blocks and two steals. In a 1-2 week she averaged 24.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.
• Mackenzie Griffin, Trinity College (CT) (Jr., C, Stamford, Conn.) - Griffin continued her stellar play by averaging a double-double last week.  She poured in 23 points and 13 rebounds in a non-conference win over Smith College, then tossed in 26 more points with 12 boards and five steals against Middlebury.
• Forbasaw Nkamebo, Westfield State University (Jr., C, Amherst, Mass.) - Led the Owls to a road win at Salem with a monster 26 point, 11-rebound, 4-steal performance in a win that clinched the MASCAC regular season title for Westfield State. Followed that up with another double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in a win over Worcester State as Westfield ran its record to 19-4 and 10-0 in the MASCAC.
• Olivia Murphy, UMass Boston (Jr., F, Canton, Mass.) - Murphy averaged a double-double of 19 points and 14.5 rebounds game in a pair of Little East Conference victories. On Wednesday she recorded 23 points and 16 rebounds to help the Beacons earn an upset 63-61 win over league-leading UMass Dartmouth. She added 15 points and 10 rebounds in her 14th double-double of the season against Plymouth State on Saturday in a 62-48 win. 
• Caroline Brasa, Western Connecticut State University (Sr., F, East Hartford, Conn.) - In two wins for the Colonials last week, Brasa averaged 18.5 points, nine rebounds, and a steal.   In WCSU's one point win over Keene State College, Brasa became the 18th player in school history to reach 1,000 points.

Davenport

Griffin

   
Nkamebo

  
Murphy

Brasa

• Bowdoin's Sara Binkhorst became the 14th player in school history to reach the 1,000 point mark.  She also set a school record with seven three pointers made in a game against Bates.
• Laura Cote, of Fitchburg State, also reached the 1,000 point plateau last week, the 10th player in school history to do so.
• A third 1,000 point scorer last week is Dani Davis of WPI, the 17th Engineer to reach the mark.