ST. LOUIS -- For the second time in the last five weeks, Jaleshia Roberson and Christiana Shorter have earned a clean sweep of the Missouri Valley Conference's weekly awards, the league office announced Monday. Roberson was named MVC Player of the Week for the third time this season, while Shorter picked up her fourth weekly award of 2009-10 with her selection as MVC Newcomer of the Week for the period February 1-7.
A sophomore guard, Roberson led the Missouri State charge in wins over Creighton and Drake this past weekend, averaging 19.5 points 2.5 assist and 2.0 steals. Roberson was red-hot from three-point range, hitting on 8-of-13 (.615) attempts from beyond the arc, including a 3-of-3 effort in the second half of Sunday's victory over Drake to help MSU overcome an 18-point deficit. The Kansas City product scored 20 points on just 10 field goal attempts and recorded three assists and two steals in the 87-78 win. Her fourth and final triple of the day with 4:43 to play gave the Lady Bears a four-point lead and sparked a 14-2 scoring run that ultimately put the game away for MSU. That performance followed up a game-high 19-point effort on Friday against Creighton in which she was 4-of-5 from three-point range and 5-of-8 from the field overall. Additionally, Roberson converted all five of her free throw attempts, including two with 21 seconds left to help wrap up the 70-64 win over the Bluejays. In all, Roberson connected on 61.1 percent of her field goal tries and was a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line in the two contests.
Roberson, who was previously named MVC Player of the Week on Dec. 21 and Jan. 11, ranks third overall in the MVC with a 16.5 ppg., scoring average in the Lady Bears 11 league games. The sophomore from Kansas City paces the circuit with an average of 2.9 three-point field goals per game in Valley play.
Shorter turned in another big week to help the MSU cause against Creighton and Drake. The freshman forward averaged 17.0 points and 9.5 rebounds and played prominent roles down the stretch in both wins for the Lady Bears. Against Creighton, the Tulsa native scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and converted a pair of conventional three-point plays in the final 2:36 that would prove to be the difference in MSU's 70-64 win over the Bluejays. On Sunday, Shorter came up big for the Lady Bears once again, recording her third double-double of the season with a 16-point, 10-rebound effort in MSU's 87-78 victory over Drake. She also came through with another key play in crunch time. With Drake leading 69-68, Shorter's basket with 5:48 left in regulation started a 14-2 run that put MSU on top to stay. For the week, she was successful on 12-of-23 (.522) field goal attempts and 83.3 percent of her free throw tries, and also blocked a pair of shots to move up to No. 9 on the Lady Bears single-season blocks (28) list.
Shorter was previously honored as the MVC's top newcomer on Dec. 7, Jan. 11 and Feb. 1.
With the two latest awards for Missouri State, four different Lady Bears have earned 10 weekly Valley awards this season. This week's sweep of the conference honors marks the third time this season MSU has received both awards. Casey Garrison and Whitney Edie earned Player and Newcomer of the Week honors, respectively, on Dec. 14, before Roberson and Shorter teamed up for their first sweep on Jan. 11.
The Lady Bears (16-6, 8-3 MVC) will begin a three-game road swing Friday (Feb. 12) evening when they take on Indiana State at 6:05 p.m. (CST) at Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Ind.
