Cleary Crowned Empire 8 Women's Basketball Player of the Week

2017 Dec 21

After leading the Elmira College women's basketball week to a trio of road victories, Danielle Cleary '18 was named the Empire 8 Conference Player of the Week (12/4/17).

Cleary is the second Soaring Eagle to earn a weekly accolade from the E8 this season, joining Rachel Vespucci '19, who collected the first Player of the Week honor of the 2017-18 campaign on November 20. It also marks the sixth time in Cleary's decorated career that she has garnered the award.

The Rochester, New York, product paced the Purple and Gold with 16.0 points per game, as the Soaring Eagles went 3-0 against non-conference foes Pennsylvania College of Technology (63-49), SUNY Cortland (82-77) and Wells College (61-55). She also recorded 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest, while shooting 90.9 percent (10-of-11) from the charity stripe.

The fourth-year guard began the week with her two highest-scoring games of the year, as she dropped a season-best 22 on the Wildcats and another 20 on the Red Dragons. After Penn College whittled Elmira's lead down to two points in the third quarter, Cleary scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter alone to secure the win. The 5-foot-8-inch senior then aided in EC's 82-point effort against Cortland with a season-high five 3-point field goals en route to another double-digit scoring output. Cleary handed out five assists and grabbed five boards in the victory. She capped off her week with six points, five rebounds and two assists, as the Soaring Eagles beat the Express to open 6-0 for the first time in over 36 years.

On the season, Cleary ranks fifth in the Empire 8 in points per game (14.2) and is tied for third in the league with 2.2 3-pointers per game.