Ariana Dalia Earns SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Accolades

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Ariana Dalia of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team captured the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week award for games through Sunday, Dec. 4, the league office announced today.

Dalia helped the Athenas start SCIAC play at 2-0 with wins over Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental. In a tight 70-64 win over the Sagehens, Dalia had five defensive rebounds and a block in the fourth quarter alone, finishing the game with 12 rebounds (nine defensive), two blocks and a steal, while holding her counterpart (Emily Church) to seven points on 3-10 shooting.

In a 67-50 win over Occidental, Dalia added two more steals and nine more rebounds to help CMS to a +18 rebounding advantage as the Athenas opened up with two straight league wins. Dalia joined the Athenas this year as a graduate student with plenty of big-game experience, after playing for Bates and helping the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament, where she scored a career-high 27 points in a win over Roger Williams. 

CMS will try to move to 3-0 in SCIAC when it plays a big SCIAC road game on Wednesday at Chapman, before hitting a 10-day break for final exams.