Oosdyke honored as Big Sky Player of the Week

By HEATHER KENNEDY
UNCBears.com

GREELEY -- Northern Colorado senior forward Lauren Oosdyke was honored Monday as the Big Sky Conference's Player of the Week by both the league office and the web site CollegeSportsMadness.com.

Oosdyke helped lead Northern Colorado Women's Basketball to a pair of critical home victories last weekend against Northern Arizona (69-54) and Sacramento State (79-63) to wrap up the first half of Big Sky Conference play in fourth place in the league standings.

Oosdyke, from Coto de Caza, Calif., scored a season-best 24 points against the Lumberjacks and followed it up with 21 against the Hornets. She finished the weekend averaging 15.7 points per game against Big Sky teams this season, which was the third-best mark in the league.

Oosdyke shot 68 percent (17-for-25) from the floor in the two games, including hitting 11 of 12 inside the arc against the Lumberjacks.

She nailed a career-best three 3-pointers against the Hornets and made eight of 10 from the free-throw line. Her eight free throws moved her into 10th in Big Sky Conference history--and second in Northern Colorado history--with 359.

Oosdyke also averaged six rebounds, four assists and one-and-a-half steals per game for the week and turned the ball over just twice in 69 minutes, with none coming against the pressure defense of Sacramento State.

She scored her 1,300th career point in the two games, too, moving into seventh with 1,339 on the Northern Colorado career charts.

This was Oosdyke's third career Big Sky Conference weekly honor and the first time she earned the award from College Sports Madness.

Oosdyke and the Bears will head to Idaho State for a pivotal rematch on Thursday then play at Weber State on Saturday. Both games can be heard online at uncbears.com.