Jan. 2, 2007

LAS VEGAS - UNLV's Shamela Hampton named the Mountain West Conference Women's Basketball Co-Player of the Week after leading the Lady Rebels to two big wins last week, the conference announced on Monday. It is the first weekly honor of the season and in her career for Hampton, who shared the award with Air Force's Alecia Steele.

Hampton, a 6-4 sophomore center from Colorado Springs, Colo., averaged 23 points and shot over 83% from the floor to carry UNLV to an 89-71 rout of 19th-ranked DePaul on Dec. 28, and a 77-63 victory over in-state rival Nevada, Reno on Dec. 30.

In the DePaul victory, she scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half, helping UNLV essentially put the game away with a 45-24 halftime lead. Against Nevada, Reno, Hampton scored 15 points in each half, for a new career-high 30 points, topping her previous high of 22. She also added 10 rebounds for her second career double-double. Hampton would finish the UNR contest 11-of-13 from the floor for 84.6% and in fact shot 80% or better in both games, after making 8-of-10 against DePaul.

For the week, Hampton averaged 23 points, seven rebounds, a block, a steal, while shooting 82.6% (19-of-23) and 8-of-12 (66.7%) at the line. She is second on the Lady Rebels this year with 12.5 ppg, and is second in the MWC with a 61.6% field goal percentage.

UNLV (6-6), next opens MWC play on Wednesday morning at 10 am (PST) at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.