AMHERST, N.Y. - Katie Titus (Penfield, N.Y.) of Daemen College has been named the East Coast Conference Women's Basketball Rookie of the Week for games played Feb. 4 through Feb. 10. The official announcement was made via the league's weekly sport report which was released this afternoon from conference headquarters in West Babylon, N.Y. It marks the fifth-straight week—and the sixth time overall—that Titus has earned some kind of weekly recognition from the ECC.
Titus, a 6-foot freshman forward, averaged 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks during road wins over Molloy College (70-60) and Queens College (64-50) this past weekend. She played all 40 minutes and scored a career-high 25 points in the win over Molloy and totaled eight points, nine rebounds and a career-high four blocks against Queens.
The wins extended Daemen's winning streak to nine games, marking the longest winning streak of the team's NCAA Division II era. The last time the Wildcats won nine straight games was midway through the 2010-11 season. The recent success has pushed Daemen (13-8, 10-2 ECC) to the upper tier of the ECC standings, and has also elevated them into the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll for the first time.
Titus has played a huge role during the Daemen winning streak. In that span, she has shot 41 percent (24-for-58) from three-point range and is averaging 20.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
Titus is the only ECC player to be named Player of the Week, Defensive Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week this year. She collects ECC Rookie of the Week honors for the second-straight week and the third time this season. She has already become the first player in team history to earn multiple ECC Player of the Week honors in the same season, having collected that honor for Jan. 7-13 and Jan. 21-27. Titus has also been a two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week selection (Nov. 12-18, Jan. 14-20).
Titus has appeared in all 21 games this season and has made 14 starts, including the last 13 games. She is averaging 11.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. She ranks high among the team's leaders in scoring (second), rebounding (first), field goals (second), steals (second) and blocks (first). She also ranks second in three-pointers made (29). She has averaged a team-high 16.0 points and a team-high 8.5 rebounds during Daemen's 12 conference games, and currently ranks first among ECC freshmen in points per game and second in rebounds per game.
In addition to Titus' weekly accolade, redshirt sophomore guard Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) was named to the ECC Weekly Honor Roll for the second-straight week. Filbert scored a career-high 25 points in the win over Molloy and added 15 points and six rebounds against Queens. She has scored in double figures 17 times this season and leads the team in points per game (14.4), three-point field goals made (39), assists (63) and steals (34).
The Wildcats are idle until this weekend when they host Long Island University Post (Feb. 15) and New York Institute of Technology (Feb.17) in key ECC games. LIU Post was the preseason favorite to win the league and currently sits in fourth place in the ECC standings (15-8, 8-5 ECC). NYIT (18-5, 10-3 ECC) is ranked eighth in the region and is currently just a half game behind Daemen in the league standings. Daemen's two league losses came to LIU Post (70-54) and NYIT (84-46) earlier this year on Long Island.
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