ST LOUIS – Doneelah Washington earned MVC Freshman of the Week for the second time this season, as announced by the league office on Monday, after a strong performance in Sunday's road win at Chicago State.
Washington tallied a season-high 14 points and 4 rebounds in just 13 minutes as Illinois State beat Chicago State Sunday. She scored 12 of her 14 points in the first quarter and finished 5-for-8 from the field (62.5%) in the win. Her 14 points were the most by any Valley freshman in play last week.
With the performance, she reached double figures for the fourth time in the last six games, which have all come off the bench. Over that stretch Washington is averaging 8.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per game on 52.9 percent shooting from the field.
The award follows Washington's MVC Freshman of the Week honor Dec. 2, after she averaged 8.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game on 10-for-16 (62.5%) shooting from the field across three games at the Gulf Coast Showcase. She reached double-figure scoring for the first two times in her career for Illinois State in Fort Myers.
Washington is one of two Valley rookies to earn MVC Freshman of the Week multiple times this season, along with Evansville's Camryn Runner. She joins Shannon Dowell, who earned the award twice last year, on the list of Redbirds to win multiple Valley Freshman of the Week honors. The MVC Freshman of the Week award was introduced by the league office prior to the start of the 2023-24 campaign.
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