LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – Rider University junior Stella Johnson (Denville, NJ/Morris Catholic) of the women's basketball team continued to rack up the weekly accolades on Tuesday morning. A day after being tabbed as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Player of the Week, Johnson was recognized by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) as the Division I Player of the Week.
Stella becomes the first Division I player to earn weekly accolades from the MBWA more than once this season. She is also the only player in the MAAC to garner the distinction this year. Stella was also named the College Sports Madness MAAC Player of the Week on Monday evening for the fifth time this season.
Johnson averaged 20 points per game as Rider won three games in conference play last week. Stella shot 56 percent from the field and 55 percent from three-point range to help the Broncs improve to 6-0 in MAAC play for the first time in program history. She also averaged six rebounds, five assists and two steals per contest.
In a win at Iona, she scored 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. She capped the week with 22 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals in a victory at Manhattan.
Stella is currently tied for second in program history with 221 steals and she is 13 in Rider history in scoring with 1,164 career points. Amongst qualified players, she leads the MAAC in points per game (20.1), field-goal percentage (.460), assists per game (4.4) and steals per game (3.1).
Johnson is building quite the résumé this year as she was named the College Sports Madness National Division I Player of the Week back in November. She's also been tabbed as both the MAAC Player of the Week and the College Sports Madness MAAC Player of the Week five times this year.
Rider returns to home to battle with Canisius in league play on Saturday, January 26. The contest is slated to get underway as the Broncs are in search of their fifth win in a row versus the Griffs after sweeping the regular-season series in each of the last two seasons.