Big Sky Player of the Week: EWU's Lexie Nelson - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

by EWU Athletics

In the final installment of Big Sky Player of the Week for the 2012-13 season, sophomore guard Lexie Nelson of the Eastern Washington University women's basketball team has earned the coveted award, announced Monday (March 11) by the league office. Nelson shares POW honors this week with Sacramento State guard Alle Moreno.

This is the weekly honor for Nelson in her collegiate career, and the second for EWU in the 2012-13 campaign. Redshirt-freshman Hayley Hodgins was honored earlier in the year.

Averaging 21 points on 57 percent shooting, while also tallying 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals on the week, Nelson led EWU to an important home sweep of Idaho State (March 7) and Weber State (March 9). With the pair of wins, the Eagles finished third in the Big Sky Conference race for the second year in a row with a 14-6 league record, 18-11 overall.

Eastern earned the No. 3-seed in the 2013 Big Sky Conference tournament, which begins Wednesday, March 13 in Missoula, Mont., where Nelson actually started her collegiate career. The Butte, Mont., native was a freshman with the Lady Griz in 2010-11, but transferred to Eastern following her rookie season.

The Eagles captured the three-seed in the tourney after a dramatic overtime win on Thursday against defending Big Sky Champion Idaho State. In the nail-biting game at Reese Court, Nelson put the team on her back and propelled the Eags a 67-61 overtime victory, which marked EWU's first OT game in more than two years.

After scoring 10 second-half points and grabbing seven rebounds to keep Eastern in the game, Nelson went a perfect 3-of-3 from the field in the overtime period, including a big spot-up triple that put the Eags back in front after ISU had taken the lead.

Nelson finished the contest with a career-high 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and a flawless 8-of-8 effort at the charity stripe.

In the regular-season finale on Saturday against Weber State, Nelson had another impressive 18 points to go along with four rebounds, three steals and one assist.

Along with leading the Eagles in scoring throughout the entire 2012-13 season, Nelson is also among the top five scorers in the Big Sky, and is one of just three guards who rank in the top 15 in the league in field-goal percentage (41.9).

She is first in the Big Sky and ranks 26th nationally in free-throw percentage at 87 percent on the season.

Nelson is also among the top five in league-only statistics for 3-point field goal percentage (39.8), 3-point field goals average (2.0/game) and minutes played (34.5/game).