NEW YORK – Aug. 31, 2015 – Epiphanny Prince of the New York Liberty and Odyssey Sims of the Tulsa Shock were named the WNBA’s Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Aug. 24 through Aug. 30.
Prince earned the fourth Player of the Week honor of her career and her second since joining her hometown Liberty this season. This also marks the fourth time in six weeks that a Liberty player won the Eastern Conference award, with Tina Charles honored in weeks six and seven and Prince selected in week nine.
A two-time All-Star, Prince helped New York post a 2-0 record for the week and improve to a league-best 20-8 (.714) overall. The sixth-year pro from Rutgers University led the Eastern Conference in scoring (20.0 ppg), was tied for second in steals (2.0 spg), ranked fifth in field goal percentage (.586 on 17-of-29 shooting), and tied for seventh in assists (3.0 apg). She was New York’s leading scorer in both games.
Prince began her week by recording 22 points, four rebounds, and two assists as the host Liberty defeated the Western Conference-leading Minnesota Lynx 81-68 on Aug. 28 to clinch its first playoff berth since 2012. She followed that performance the next day with 18 points, four assists, and four steals in an 80-66 win over the host Connecticut Sun. Prince had eight points in the fourth quarter, when the Liberty outscored the Sun 23-9.
Other candidates for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were the Atlanta Dream’s Angel McCoughtry, the Chicago Sky’s Courtney Vandersloot, the Fever’s Tamika Catchings, the Sparks’ Candace Parker, the Liberty’s Charles, and the Seattle Storm’s Crystal Langhorne.
For more information on this week’s Players of the Week, visit www.wnba.com/awards.