SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Southern Conference announced today that Appalachian State’s Maria Grimes has been named the Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 23.

Grimes, a junior from Birmingham, Ala., set career-highs in points twice, rebounds once and tied her career-high for steals as the Mountaineers went 1-2 this past week.  The point guard led ASU in scoring with 24 points in the 69-65 loss to Wofford on Jan. 16.  She recorded her first career double-double in the 85-68 victory at Georgia Southern on Jan. 20.  She tallied a career-high 33 points and grabbed 10 boards and was 6-of-7 from behind the three-point arc and shot 62.9 percent from the field.  She finished the week with 19 points, five steals and dished out four assists in the 75-62 loss to league leading Davidson on Jan. 22.

For the week, Grimes averaged 25.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and shot 65.0 percent from the three-point line.  She ranks second in the league in scoring with 16.0 points per game in conference play.

Other top performers include Chattanooga’s Alex Anderson, Davidson’s Katie Hamilton, Elon’s Rachel Hester, Georgia Southern’s Carolyn Whitney, UNCG’s Jasmine Byrd, Western Carolina’s Lauren Powell and Wofford’s Liz Miller.