Sky’s Prince and Sparks’ Ogwumike named Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week
The WNBA named Epiphanny Prince of the Chicago Sky and Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Spark as the league’s Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week for games played June 4 – June 10.
It is Prince’s second honor of her career. The third-year guard led Chicago to a 2-0 record during a week that saw the Sky’s overall mark reach a franchise-best 6-1 start.
The top overall pick of the  2012 WNBA Draft, Ogwumike earned the league’s Rookie of the Month honor in May and now her first Western Conference Player of the Week award.
From the league:
Prince, whose league-leading 25.3 points per game thus far in 2012 is equivalent to the WNBA’s all-time single-season points per game mark, tied a WNBA record for consecutive games with 30-or-more points and hit yet another game-tying, three-point shot as time expired in regulation play. The 25.3 ppg also is nearly double that of her previous best (13.6, set last season).
Prince, opened the week by tallying 32 points, including a running three-pointer with 0.1 second on the clock to force overtime vs. the Tulsa Shock in a game Chicago went on to win, 98-91. In addition to scoring a combined 19 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, Prince finished the game with five assists and three steals. But it was her third straight effort of 30-or-more points that equaled a league record set by Cynthia Cooper, then of the Houston Comets, in 1997. Two days later, Prince’s 26 points paved the way for a 73-64 road win over New York, thereby snapping the Liberty’s three-game winning streak.
Ogwumike helped the 6-1 Sparks to the second-best record in the West, with their only loss coming at the hands of the undefeated, defending WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx.
In the Sparks’ 90-74 win over the visiting Phoenix Mercury, Ogwumike recorded her first double-double as a professional, set personal career-highs in points (25) and rebounds (12), and also contributed three steals. In the process, she ranked second in the Western Conference in terms of field goal percentage (.786 on 11-of-14 shooting).
Other candidates for WNBA Players of the Week were Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry, Connecticut’s Kara Lawson, Indiana’s Tamika Catchings, New York’s Cappie Pondexter, and Washington’s Crystal Langhorne in the East, as well as Minnesota’s Maya Moore, Phoenix’s DeWanna Bonner, and Tulsa’s Temeka Johnson in the West.
