Teams: Women's Basketball: Press Releases

Monday, February 18, 2008

UMMAH IS NESCAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR FOURTH TIME IN HER CAREER

MEDFORD -- After dominating the weekend against Bowdoin and Colby, Tufts senior co-captain Khalilah Ummah (Litchfield, ME/Waynflete School) was selected as the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) women's basketball Player of the Week today. She has now received the honor four times in the past two seasons for Coach Carla Berube's Jumbos.

A 6'1" forward/center, Ummah played like Bill Walton offensively in the two games. Tufts had an 83-56 victory against Bowdoin on Friday night and an 84-60 win over Colby on Saturday afternoon. Overall Ummah scored on 18 of 28 shots (64.3 percent), many on back-to-the-basket post moves. She scored 20 points against the Polar Bears as Tufts defeated Bowdoin for the first time since 1994. Ummah was 10 for 16 from the field. Her scoring production against Colby featured 8 for 12 shooting and 17 points. She finished the weekend with 37 points for an 18.5 scoring average.

Tufts had massive rebounding advantages in both games, and Ummah was the catalyst. She tore down 12 against Bowdoin as the team out-rebounded the Polar Bears 43-19. She then grabbed 19 rebounds against Colby, the most by a Tufts player since 1996. Ten came at the offensive end, the second time this season she reached double-digits in offensive rebounds. The Jumbos won the battle of the boards against Colby 55-28. For the two games, Tufts out-rebounded its opponents by a 98-47 total. Ummah corralled 15.5 per game for the weekend. She also blocked five shots against the Mules.

Ummah was NESCAC's Player of the Week after the first games of the 2007-08 season on November 20. She also took the honors on December 11 and January 15 of last season. This year she leads NESCAC with 10.3 rebounds and 2.26 blocked shots per game while averaging 12.1 points and shooting .510 from the field (125/245).

The victory against Bowdoin was the 20th of the season for Tufts, setting a new team record. They finished the regular season at 21-2 overall and 7-2 in the league. The Jumbos are the second seed entering the conference tournament starting on Saturday (Feb. 23). They host seventh seed Middlebury College in the first round on Saturday at Cousens Gym. Tip off is 3:00 pm.

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