Women’s Basketball — NSU’s Bolden named Southland Player of the Week

NATCHITOCHES – After a week where she led all scorers and set a pair of career highs, Northwestern State’s Monette Bolden was named the Southland Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced on Monday. She is the fourth different player in six weeks to receive the award for the Lady Demons and the third in a row.

Bolden began the week with one of her best performances of the year, in a season already filled with consistent and steady production. She scored a career-high 21 points in the win at ULM on Wednesday including a 4-for-5 effort from beyond the arc.

She made a critical 3-pointer late in the game that gave NSU a two-possession lead and it was her jumper and foul at the third-quarter buzzer that was one of the plays of the games for the Lady Demons. She added a career-best five steals in the game as well and finished the game with three or more assists for the fourth time this year.

Against Tarleton, the Abbeville native scored a game-high 18 points and pulled down a team-leading seven rebounds.

On the week Bolden averaged 19.5 points, raising her season average more than a point per game in two outings, shooting 52 percent from the field (16-31) and 50 percent from beyond the arc (4-8). She also averaged 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals as the Lady Demons split their two games this week.

Bolden leads NSU in scoring (13.6), assists (3.1) and steals (2.2) per game this year and ranks in the top five in the conference in each of those categories. She is second on the team in rebounding at 6.2 per game and seventh in the conference.

The Lady Demons return to action after Christmas with a road game at Kansas set for Dec. 28 and begin the SLC Preseason Tip Off Tournament on Jan. 3 at 11 a.m. against New Orleans.