Dec. 18, 2007

FAIRBANKS, AK- The gifts came a few days early for the Alaska women's basketball team this year, as Sheena Brown was honored as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's Player of the Week for December 10-16. The award marks the first time Brown has taken home Player of the Week honors in her three-year player career, though she did receive a spot on both the GNAC Honorable Mention and Academic All-American teams last season. Brown becomes the first Nanook to earn Player of the Week honors since Caitlyn Rohrbach on January 22-28, 2007.

"Sheena just lives, breathes, and sleeps basketball: it's one of the biggest things in her life," said head coach Lynne Andrew. "Her goals for herself and our team totally match everything that we want this program to be about. She has a real `refuse to lose' attitude when she gets on the court, and she is willing to sacrifice, which is kind of our team motto this year: we even put it on the back our t-shirts."

Brown earned the award by leading the team on an difficult and exhausting three-game road trip in Hawaii, where the Nanooks came out with a perfect 3-0 mark despite intense heat, physical opposition, and over 3,000 miles of travel. The Fairbanks native led the team in scoring in each of the three games, including a 22-point performance against Hawaii-Hilo. All told, Brown finished the trip with 41 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, and nine steals, five of which came in Alaska's opening game against BYU-Hawaii, tying her career-high.

"Sheena has made huge strides this year," said Andrew. "She has always been a great scorer, but she is taking a lot more pride in defensive side, getting rebounds and steals. She worked out every single day this summer, and encourages our younger players to get into the gym extra as well, to shoot and to play one-on-one. She sees the potential in those younger players and really sort of feeds of that. She has really enabled our team to really take the next step."

Brown is just the latest in a number of Nanooks to claim individual recognition so far this season. Earlier in the season, both Brown and Kari Reabold won spots on the Mt. McKinley Bank North Star Invitational All-Tournament Team, while Cristina Bruketta and Sarah Herrin earned All-Tournament Team honors at the Glacier Classic in Anchorage. This balance and depth of talent have seen the team jump out to a 7-1 start: their best beginning since the 2000-01 season.

With their successful pre-conference campaign behind them, Brown and the rest of the Nanooks will be eager to return to the Patty Center court, where they open their GNAC schedule against Seattle on January 3. Tip-off in that match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.