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Kamilla Cardoso headlines season's first women's basketball starting five of the week – NCAA.com
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These women’s basketball players started the season off with big-time performances and were named to NCAA.com’s first starting five of the week.
NC State junior guard Saniya Rivers averaged 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in a pair of Wolfpack wins this week, including a career-high for points as NC State scored its first win over UConn in 25 years.
Rivers led all players on the floor in the highly-anticipated matchup with the then-second-ranked Huskies, finishing her night with a career high of 33 points. That scoring total marked the most for a Wolfpack player since Feb. 27, 2011, and Rivers rounded out her first career double-double with 10 rebounds in addition to five assists, three steals and three blocks. She became the first player in the last 25 years to have 30+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists against UConn.
The performance came off the heels of an 11-point, four-rebound, three-assist outing in the Wolfpack’s season opener against Charlotte on Nov. 7. Rivers put up those numbers in just 18 minutes of action.
NC State, 2-0, cracked the AP Top 25 for the first time since Feb. 6, 2023, checking in at No. 14 in Monday’s poll. The Wolfpack returns to action on Wednesday, Nov. 15, when it welcomes Elon to Reynolds Coliseum.
Middle Tennessee fifth-year guard Savannah Wheeler, the preseason Player of the Year in Conference USA, leads the league in scoring at 18.3 points per game after week one as the Lady Raiders won two of three games.
Wheeler tallied 17 points, five rebounds and four assists in the Lady Raiders’ 67-47 win over Memphis to open the season on Nov. 6. She went a 7-of-8 from the charity stripe and played all 40 minutes against the Tigers.
She followed that performance up with a team-high 23 points, seven rebounds, and six assists in Middle Tennessee’s 93-48 win against Florida A&M on Nov. 9, which marked the program’s 1,000th win, just the 25th program in NCAA Division I women’s basketball to eclipse that mark. She shot 8-of-9 from the field, including a perfect 2-for-2 from beyond the arc and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe in just 26 minutes of action.
Wheeler capped the week off with 15 points in a hard-fought 65-60 loss to Princeton on Sunday in what was a matchup of two 2023 NCAA tournament teams.
In addition to scoring, Wheeler currently ranks second in CUSA in field goal percentage (.594) and free throws made (14) behind teammate Jalynn Gregory.
The Lady Raiders, 2-1, next head to the Bahamas to compete in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Their first game of the tournament is scheduled against Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 18.
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