Maya Love Earns SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Honor

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior guard Maya Love earned the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Award for the second time this season, the league office announced today.

Love captured the honor after helping the Athenas close out the regular season with three straight wins to clinch the SCIAC regular season title outright. CMS stands at 23-2 overall and 15-1 in the SCIAC heading into postseason play, when it will host a semifinal game with Redlands on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The three wins enabled the Athenas to hold off Pomona-Pitzer (14-2 SCIAC) for the outright regular season championship. 

The CMS defense, which has been the backbone of its success all season long, was never more evident than this week, when the Athenas held two of its opponents without a field goal for an entire quarter. In a 75-43 win over La Verne on Monday, CMS led by just three midway through the third quarter, but forced the Leopards to miss their final 28 shots from the floor, including 0-15 in the fourth quarter. Love had a career-high six steals in that contest as well to lead the defensive effort. 

After a comfortable 80-55 win over Occidental on Wednesday, Love and the CMS defense once again held its opponent without a field goal in the regular season finale at Cal Lutheran, outscoring the Regals 14-3 in the second quarter, with all three points from Cal Lutheran coming from the foul line. The Regals ended up with a field goal drought of over 13 minutes, while La Verne's field goal drought lasted over 14 minutes.

Love and junior guard Gloria Bates have now each won the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Award twice this season for the Athenas, who rank 21st in the nation in fewest points allowed per game at 51.3 ppg. 

CMS heads into the postseason on Thursday night against Redlands one win shy of matching the program record for wins in a season. The Athenas have also won at least a share of the SCIAC regular season title for each of the last six years.