MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College junior Melanie McCreight (Winfield, Iowa) is the latest Tiger to be named Midwest Collegiate Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week, as the award was announced by the conference Monday.
McCreight won the award for the first time in her career and is the fourth IWC women’s basketball player this season to win the award. She joins teammates Anna Jones (So.-Cornell, Ill.), Jessi Beachey (Jr.-Fisher, Ill.) and Sheray Brown (Jr.-Detroit, Mich.) as previous winners this season.
McCreight, a 5-6 guard, won the award after averaging 22.5 points, six rebounds, two assists and 2.5 steals per games last week for the 14th-ranked Tigers. She also shot 55% from the field and 69.6% from the free throw line, and hit seven three-pointers over the two games in shooting 53.8% from behind the arc last week.
The junior scored 21 points on Wednesday in IWC’s 75-73 win at #19 Grand View University, including 16 points in the second half as Wesleyan came back from a 13-point deficit. McCreight followed that up with a career-high 24 points as well as seven rebounds in a win on Saturday at Viterbo (Wis.) University that locked up the MCC regular season title for the Tigers.
McCreight has particularly stepped up down the season’s stretch, averaging 20 points per game over her last seven games. She also is grabbing 4.9 rebounds and averaging 3.6 made three-point field goals per game during that stretch, shooting 46.3% from three-point range as IWC has built a 10-game winning streak.
For the season McCreight is now averaging 13.0 points and 3.5 rebounds per game and has hit 44 three-pointers while shooting 37.0% from the three-point line. She also is shooting 75.4% from the free throw stripe. McCreight is the Tigers’ second leading scorer and leading three-point shooter and has moved up to a tie for 11th in the MCC in scoring while also ranking fifth in the conference in three-pointers per game and seventh in three-point percentage.
The Tigers close out their regular season on Saturday against Waldorf College at 1 p.m. at Ruble Arena. It will be Senior Day for IWC and the final game before starting MCC Tournament play on Thursday, Feb. 25 at home. A live broadcast will be available at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia.
For more information regarding the IWC basketball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
