Jan. 4, 2010
RUSTON, La. - Shanavia Dowdell and Olu Ashaolu were named the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Basketball Players of the Week for Dec. 28-Jan. 3.
Dowdell averaged 23.3 points on 62 percent shooting, 14.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 2.0 blocks as the Lady Techsters went 3-0 in a trio of road games on the week, including claiming the championship of the UTSA New Year's Classic.
The Calera, Alabama native was named to the all-tournament team after scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in a win over Stephen F. Austin, then following it up with a career-high-tying 30 points to go with a career-high 18 rebounds in a win over UTSA. In Sunday's win over Southern Miss, she scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Ashaolu, a 6-7 forward from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Humble Christian Academy), helped the Bulldogs to a pair of wins over Houston (99-94) and Nevada (77-71) with a pair of double-doubles last week. He recorded 17 points with a career-high 21 rebounds against Houston. The 21 rebounds marked the first time that a Louisiana Tech player has recorded at least 20 rebounds since Paul Millsap notched 23 at Hawai`i in 2006. Nine of Ashaolu's 21 rebounds were offensive.
Ashaolu also had 14 points and 12 rebounds in Louisiana Tech's conference-opening win over Nevada. He now has seven double-doubles on the season.
On the week, Ashaolu averaged 15.5 points and 16.5 rebounds per game while shooting 52.4 percent (11-of-21) from the field.
It was the second weekly award for each student-athlete as both took home the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards on Monday morning.
