Abdelgawad, Meredith sweep C-USA awards for second time

Published 2:33 pm Monday, January 17, 2022

For the second time in the past three weeks, the Western Kentucky women’s basketball team swept the Conference USA weekly awards.

Meral Abdelgawad was named Player of the Week while Mya Meredith was named Freshman of the Week, C-USA said Monday.

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It is the third straight Freshman of the Week award for Meredith and the third Player of the Week of the season for Abdelgawad.

Abdelgawad notched her fourth 30-point game of the season at Rice on Thursday with 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting. At North Texas, the senior had 18 points, four steals and two rebounds. For the week, Abdelgawad shot 65.5% from the floor and 60% from the perimeter.

The Cairo, Egypt, native’s 20.3 points per game on the season leads C-USA and her 24.8 points per game during league play also leads the conference. She has the best field-goal percentage in the conference (54.2%) of any guard and the second-best among all players. Through five conference games, Abdelgawad is shooting 65.2% from the field, which leads the league.

Meredith has continued to shine in her rookie season. Against Rice and North Texas, she averaged 15 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 steals, two blocks and two assists per game. The freshman had 20 points against Rice, which has surrendered 20 points or more to a player five times this season (counting Abdelgawad).

The Taylor Mill product has stepped up her defensive play, notching five steals against the Owls and six steals against the Mean Green. She also had two blocks in both games.

The Lady Toppers have a 5-0 record in C-USA play and have won seven straight games. WKU will put that streak to the test with Florida Atlantic and Florida International coming to town this week. The Lady Toppers are scheduled to face Florida Atlantic on Thursday at 11 a.m. and will host FIU on Saturday at noon.