SEC Awards Sweep

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt’s Mariella Fasoula and Koi Love swept the SEC women’s basketball weekly awards as Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week, respectively, as announced by the conference office Monday.

• This is the first time the Commodores have swept the SEC awards since Jan. 23, 2012, when Christina Foggie and Kady Schrann won Player and Freshman honors, respectively. Vanderbilt is the first team to sweep the awards this season.
• Love is the first Vanderbilt player in program history to win back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Week honors (awarded since 2006). The only other time the Commodores won the award in consecutive weeks was Dec. 8 (Erin Whalen) and Dec. 15 (Kayla Overbeck) of 2017.
• Fasoula is Vanderbilt’s first SEC Player of the Week since Jasmine Lister earned the recognition Jan. 13, 2014.

The duo led the Commodores to a 2-0 record at the Husky Classic last week which included an overtime victory over Washington after trailing by as many as 14. Fasoula was named tournament MVP and Love was selected to the all-tournament team as Vanderbilt earned its first Pac-12 road win since 2012.

In the tournament opener, Love led the Commodores with a then-career-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and added eight rebounds, six assists, one block and a steal to lead Vandy to a 76-63 win over UC Irvine. Fasoula notched a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and became the first Commodore with six blocks in a game since 2008.

Less than 24 hours later, Love eclipsed that effort with a double-double that included a career-high 19 points and 10 rebounds in addition to two blocks, two assists and a career-high three steals. She scored a team-high 12 points in the second half to help the Commodores erase an 11-point halftime deficit. Fasoula also added 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting with five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

In the closing minutes against Washington, Love made a jumper with 1:43 left in the game to pull within one and on Vanderbilt’s next possession she was fouled and made a free throw to tie the game with 1:20 to play.

With Vanderbilt trailing by one with 26 seconds left, Fasoula drew a foul and drained the second free throw to send the game into overtime. In the extra session, Fasoula had all four Vanderbilt points. With 11 seconds left, the fifth-year center drew a charge to give the Commodores the ball back. On the ensuing possession, she scored the game-winner with 0.4 seconds remaining.

Fasoula and Love have led Vanderbilt to a 9-3 start with one nonconference game remaining. The Commodores will look to extend their four-game winning streak when they welcome Columbia to Memorial Gym on Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. Popcorn and drinks are $1. Tickets can be found here.