University of Albany's Charity Iromuanya & Julie Forster Win America East Weekly Basketball Awards - UAlbany Sports 2010

Cambridge, Mass. - University at Albany's Charity Iromuanya and Julie Forster have been chosen America East Conference Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week, respectively, in women's basketball, as announced by the conference office on Monday, Feb. 22. It is the first honor of the season for both players, who helped the Great Danes win two of three games last week.

Iromuanya, a senior guard from Lincoln, Neb. who entered the week having never scored more than 20 points, averaged 22.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals in the three games. In a 65-51 win over Binghamton on Feb. 15, the senior tallied 14 of her 22 points in the second half. The 22 points was a career high at the time. She also shot 8-for-13 from the field and made all four of her three-point field goal attempts. Defensively, she held Erica Carter, who was ranked third nationally in three-point field goals per game, to just three points and no field goals from beyond the arc. After netting a team-high 15 points in UAlbany's 51-40 loss to UMBC on Feb. 18, the team captain scored a career-high 29 points to lead her team to a 64-62 overtime victory over New Hampshire on Feb. 21. She also added nine rebounds and a team-leading six assists. Iromuanya grabbed an offensive rebound and put back what later proved to be the game-winning shot in overtime. She also followed her own miss and converted a layup as time expired in the first half.

Forster, a freshman forward from Huntington, N.Y., averaged 7.7 points, 13.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in three games. In the process, she broke Danielle Hutcheson's single-season program record for rebounds by a freshman. The walk-on player started the week by falling just shy of a double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds in the team's 14-point win over Binghamton. After contributing six points and 11 rebounds in a setback against UMBC, Forster eclipsed Hutcheson's standard by grabbing 20 boards in UAlbany's overtime victory at New Hampshire. Her rebound total was a single-game conference best by an America East player this season and fell just shy of breaking the program's single-game record of 22, registered by Casey Stanley versus Nazareth on Feb. 22, 1992. Forster now leads the league in rebounding (8.4 pg) and has pulled down 226 this season. Hutcheson finished the 2001-02 campaign with 216 boards.

UAlbany (10-17, AE 3-11) controls its own destiny and can finish as high as seventh in the regular-season standings if it can register wins in the final week of the season against 24th-ranked Hartford on Feb. 24 and Maine on Feb. 27. Iromuanya, the team's lone senior, will be recognized for her contributions to the program prior to the home finale versus the Hawks.


Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information