Jan. 24, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – One day after leading the Notre Dame women’s basketball team to a comeback win over No. 6/7 Rutgers, senior All-America forward Jacqueline Batteast (South Bend, Ind./Washington HS) has seen her name mentioned in connection with two notable awards.
For the third time this season, and the fourth time in her career, Batteast has been selected as the BIG EAST Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday. The 6-foot-2 wing also was tapped for the honor back on Nov. 22 and Dec. 20, and she is the third player this season to be named BIG EAST Player of the Week three times, joining Meg Bulger of West Virginia and Jessalyn Deveny of Boston College.
Batteast earned the weekly conference award after averaging 23.0 points per game with a .515 field goal percentage (17-for-33) as the Irish downed Syracuse (74-61) and Rutgers (63-47). In the first game at SU, she scored a game-high 19 points, including five critical markers down the stretch after the Orange had trimmed the Notre Dame lead to five points. Four days later against RU, Batteast tallied 18 of her game-high 27 points in the second half as the Irish erased a 13-point first-half deficit. In fact, Batteast herself outscored the entire Scarlet Knights’ squad in the final period (18-16).
Besides her BIG EAST award, Batteast was named to the John R. Wooden Women’s Award Midseason Top 20 List, recognized the leading candidates for the honor that goes to the nation’s outstanding women’s college basketball player. In March, approximately 15 finalists for the Wooden Women’s Award will be placed on the voting ballot by the award’s National Advisory Board, which is comprised of some of the country’s leading sportswriters and sportscasters who cover women’s basketball on a regular basis. Those ballots will then be mailed to more than 250 voters across the nation, with the top five vote-getters earning Wooden Award All-America honors, as well as a trip to the Wooden Award trophy presentation ceremony April 9 at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles.
For the season, Batteast ranks second in the BIG EAST in scoring (19.0 ppg.), and also stands among the conference leaders in rebounding (10th – 6.7 rpg.), assists (13th – 3.11 apg.), free throw percentage (2nd – .838), double-doubles (7th – 4) and 20-point games (2nd – 8). In addition, Batteast ranks in the top five on the Irish career lists for points (5th – 1,676), scoring average (4th – 15.4 ppg.), rebounds (4th – 874), rebounding average (3rd – 8.0 rpg.), blocks (3rd – 147) and double-doubles (tie-2nd – 36).
Notre Dame (16-3, 4-2 BIG EAST), which moved up to sixth in Monday’s latest Associated Press poll after its win over Rutgers, returns to action Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ET), playing host to St. John’s at the Joyce Center.
— ND —