Coates Earns Third SEC Freshman of the Week Honor

Jan. 13, 2014

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina center Alaina Coates (Irmo, S.C./Dutch Fork) earned her third SEC Freshman of the Week selection of the season, the league office announced today. Her 12.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per game over the week helped drive the Gamecocks to a 4-0 start in SEC action and a 16-1 overall record, both marks tying the 2001-02 team for the best in school history.

Coates stretched her string of double-doubles against SEC opponents to three with 10 points and a South Carolina freshman-record 17 rebounds in the Gamecocks’ win over Kentucky at Colonial Life Arena Thursday night. Eight of her points and nine of her rebounds came after halftime, as the Gamecocks held off a Wildcats’ surge. Coates continued her streak of double-digit scoring games with 14 points at Auburn on Sunday. With all of her points coming in the first half as the Gamecocks dug themselves out of a 12-point hole midway through the period, she accounted for more than one-third of the team’s 39 first-half points.

Coates has scored in double figures in six straight games, including every SEC contest of her career. She has three double-doubles in four SEC games and is the only freshman in the league to rank among the SEC’s top 25 scorers and top 20 rebounders. Coates is second on the team with 14.8 points per SEC contest and leads the way on the glass with 11.3 boards per league game. Her 36 blocked shots this season is the second-most by a Gamecock freshman in school history, just six off the freshman record of 42.

South Carolina wraps up a two-game road swing on Thu., Jan. 16, at Texas A&M in a battle of the only remaining undefeated teams in the SEC. The Gamecocks are back at Colonial Life Arena on Sun., Jan. 19, taking on Alabama at 3 p.m.