Alyssa Charlston made the road her home this past week as stellar play against Texas State and UTSA last Thursday and Saturday helped garner the 6-foot-1 post the honor of Western Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. The first of the season for Charlston, this is the second time in her career at Idaho that she has won the award.
Charlston, a junior from Sammamish, Wash., recorded her seventh double-double of the 2012-2013 season with a 14-point, 17-rebound game on Thursday in Idaho’s big 72-60 victory over Texas State. The 17 rebounds were a season high for Charlston while hitting 7-of-13 shots from the field.
"Alyssa certainly played extremely well and was huge on the glass and very consistent offensively," Idaho said head coach Jon Newlee . "Her shot selection was great, and her percentage was great. She played hard and she played great defensively too."
Charlston’s high caliber play didn’t just stop against Texas State as she followed that game up with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor while nabbing six rebounds and handing out a career-high tying five blocks in Idaho’s 64-45 blow-out of UTSA in San Antonio on Saturday. The victory helped the Vandals break a tie with UTSA in the conference standings to take full control of the third place spot in the WAC. The 45 points scored by the Road Runners was a season-low for any Vandal opponent and UTSA was held to just 27 percent shooting in the game, possibly a byproduct of Idaho’s 13 blocked shots.
Over the course of the two games, Charlston averaged 12.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3 blocks while hitting 57 percent of her shots from inside the 3-point line with an overall shooting percentage of 52.2.
"Anytime you get individual awards, they're team related," Newlee said. "Our team played well last week on the road. All around it was a great two games for our team and for Alyssa at both ends of the floor."
Winners of fourth straight WAC road games and currently on a three game winning streak, the Vandals are now 6-3 in WAC play and 9-11 overall for the season. Idaho will travel to Logan in the third game of a four game road trip to take on Utah State (10-10 overall, 7-2 in the WAC) for a chance to move into a tie for second place. The Aggies managed to escape Moscow earlier this month with a 91-85 win in the Cowan Spectrum and Idaho hasn’t beaten Utah State since their 54-53 victory in Logan during the 2009-2010 season.
Following their game with Utah State, Idaho will take on San Jose State on Saturday before returning to Moscow for a two game home-stand next week against Denver and New Mexico State.
Comments