Tori Jarosz & Jackie Benitez Selected as Women's Basketball Weekly Award Winners
MAAC Sports
Player of the Week
Tori Jarosz, Marist
6Sr., C, 6-3, Cortlandt Manor, NY/Lakeland
Tori Jarosz averaged 18 points and 14 rebounds, recording two double-doubles in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s opening weekend. Jarosz also recorded 1.5 blocks per game, 1.5 assists per game, averaged 34 minutes a game and shot 48 percent from the field as the Red Foxes earned wins against the league’s defending champions and the preseason poll favorite. In the Red Foxes first game of the week, Jarosz scored 16 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and swatted three shots as the Red Foxes defeated Quinnipiac, 56-47. Against Fairfield, Jarosz improved on her scoring output, this time notching 20 points, and also pulled down an identical amount of rebounds to her first game of the week with 14. Jarosz also shot 6-for-11 from the field, good for .545 percent, and 8-for-10 from the free-throw stripe. The two double-doubles bumped Jarosz’s season total up to five in nine games.
Rookie of the Week
Jackie Benitez, Siena
Fr., G, 5-10, Tobyhanna, PA/Pocono Mountain West
Benitez averaged 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals in just 19.5 minutes off the bench in leading the Saints to the program’s first 2-0 start in the MAAC in five years. On Friday, she posted season-highs of 15 points, five rebounds and four steals in just 17 minutes off the bench in guiding the Saints to a 69-63 win at Monmouth. She canned the three that gave Siena the lead for good, and scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half. After Monmouth had rallied within six late, Benitez came up with a huge steal in the waning seconds, was fouled and hit two clutch free throws to ice the win. On Sunday, she scored seven of her nine points off the bench in the second half and added three steals in Siena’s overtime win over Saint Peter’s. She came up with a huge steal and then hit the go-ahead three that put Siena back in front in the third quarter after trailing by nine. Although the game would go to overtime, Siena would not trail again after Benitez’s big play. Benitez ranks second on the Saints averaging 8.1 points in 18.4 minutes while coming off the bench this season, and currently ranks second in the MAAC in free throw percentage (.870) and eighth in steals (1.8).