Coley earns Sun Belt Player of the Week honors

Sophomore Jerica Coley has been named Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week, as voted on by the league’s head coaches on Jan. 9. The honor marks the second of the campaign for Coley and the third of her career.

A Preseason First Team All-SBC pick, Coley led FIU (11-5, 1-2 SBC) to a 2-0 performance last week as the Panthers extended their win streak to a season-best four games on the strength of victories over Morgan State and ULM.

Coley led FIU in scoring in both contests with 28 points against MSU as well as a career-high and SBC season-best 36 points versus ULM, en route to a week average of 32.0 points per game. The point guard shot 50 percent from the field, 53.8 percent from three-point land and 90 percent from the free throw line across the two contests.

A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Coley was also active on the defensive end, pulling down a career-best 16 rebounds against the Bears and notching six boards versus the Warhawks to go on for a week average of 11 rebounds per contest. In addition, Coley dished out a career-high-tying eight assists against the Bears and played all 40 minutes in each contest.

Coley’s 30-point outing versus ULM marked her sixth of the season, while her double-double versus MSU marked her third of the campaign and sixth of her career. Coley is the only Panther to have reached double-figures in scoring in all 15 of FIU’s games this season.

For the season, Coley leads the Panthers in four statistical categories – points (399, 24.9 ppg), rebounds (120, 7.5 rpg), assists (79, 4.9 apg) and blocks (38, 2.4 bpg) – and ranks atop the Sun Belt in scoring, blocks and minutes played (39.0 mpg). In addition, the sophomore ranks second in assist/turnover ratio (1.4) and third in assists and free throw percentage (.853).

Across the nation, Coley ranks second in the NCAA in points-per-game, 26th in blocks-per-game, and 40th in both assists-per-game and free throw percentage.

FIU will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 12, when the Panthers host SBC leader Middle Tennessee (12-5, 4-0 SBC). Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. at U.S. Century Bank Arena.