Women’s basketball: Kelsey Mitchell earns second Big Ten Player of the Year

Mackenzie Gignac
Tue, 28 Feb 2017 02:58:19 +0000
Basketball, Men's Basketball, News, Sports, Big Ten, Buckeyes, featured, Kelsey Mitchell, Ohio State women's basketball, osu, Player of the Year

Ohio State junior guard Kelsey Mitchell attacks the lane against Maryland on Feb. 20 at the Schottenstein Center. Credit: Magee Sprague | Lantern reporter

Ohio State junior guard Kelsey Mitchell was named the 2016-17 Big Ten Player of the Year for the second time in three seasons. She was also named to first team All-Big Ten for the third straight season.

Mitchell leads the Big Ten in scoring at 23.4 points per game and was also awarded Big Ten Player of the Week four times throughout the season. She currently sits as the Buckeyes third all-time scorer with 2,463 points and holds the Buckeyes’ record for 3-pointers.

Mitchell mentioned she earned the award by trying to contribute to team play.

“I don’t set individual goals of winning certain awards, but I try to get better each day and do whatever I can do to help my team win. We’ve had a great year and my teammates have been tremendous and I can’t wait to get back out on the court with them,” Mitchell said in a press release.

In her last 10 games of the regular season, Mitchell scored at least 20 points per game. She was able to contribute more than just points, averaging 4.5 assists against Big Ten opponents and had the most steals on the team snatching the ball 39 times.

Mitchell has some company in Big Ten awards as five other teammates received Big Ten honors. Senior forward Shayla Cooper, redshirt junior forward Stephanie Mavunga received second team Big Ten honors. Junior forward Sierra Calhoun was named an honorable mention and freshman Tori McCoy earned a place at the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team.

OSU heads into the Big Ten tournament with the No. 1 seed, facing either Iowa or Northwestern at noon on Friday.