December 11, 2007
San Antonio – St. Mary’s University women’s basketball player Natalie Gamez was named Heartland Conference women’s basketball player of the week for the week of Dec. 3-9, it was announced by the conference office Tuesday.
The Rattlers continued their run of strong play recently with Gamez (Jr., San Antonio) leading the team to a pair of wins and the tournament title at the Ouachita Baptist Lady Tiger Classic last weekend. Gamez led the team in nearly every statistical category last week. She averaged 17.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game, while hitting on 61.1 percent of her shots from the field, including 62.5 percent from three-point range.
Against Arkansas-Monticello she just missed her second double-double of the season, scoring 23 points and pulling down nine rebounds in just 28 minutes of action. She added five assists and three steals in the game. Against host Ouachita Baptist she scored 11 points, had four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
For the season she is averaging 19.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, while shooting an amazing 57.5 percent from the field, including 40.0 percent from three-point range.
The award marked the third straight week that a Rattler has been named Heartland Player of the Week. Rachel Jones (Jr., Little Rock, Ark.) was named Player of the Week two weeks ago; giving St. Mary’s the top player in the conference three of the four weeks they have given the award this season.
Gamez and the Rattlers have won their last four games to improve to 5-4 this season. St. Mary’s will be off for the next 11 days before returning home to face Hillsdale College in the first round of the St. Mary’s Holiday Classic at 7:30 p.m. at Bill Greehey Arena.