Nelson caps season with CCAA player of the week honors
Junior guard Claudia Nelson earned Cal State East Bay's first-ever CCAA Player of the Week honors on Monday. (Photo: Kelly Paris)
- March 1, 2010
Cal State East Bay women's basketball player Claudia Nelson was named California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Player of the Week on Monday. The guard became Cal State East Bay's first-ever CCAA Player of the Week after a pair of impressive performances in the final two games of the regular season last week.
A junior, Nelson helped guide the Pioneers to their second victory of the season, an upset over Humboldt State, before pacing East Bay in a close loss to Sonoma State on Homecoming and Senior Night. The Daly City native averaged 19 points, four rebounds, two steals and 1.5 assists over the two game split last week.
In the 75-73 win over the Jacks, who had beaten the Pioneers by 39 points in Arcata earlier this season, Nelson posted 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and five rebounds, while helping Cal State East Bay score a season-high 75 points. Nelson also posted four steals, helping East Bay force 22 Humboldt turnovers in the redemptive victory over her former team.
On Homecoming, Nelson led an East Bay charge that saw the Pioneers come back from down by as many as 17 in the second half to close the Sonoma State lead to just two before falling, 68-65. The junior dropped in 20 points on 42.1 percent shooting from the floor, including a 2-for-4 performance from beyond the arc. Nelson also grabbed three boards in the season-ending loss.
Nelson capped the campaign with nine straight games in which she reached double figures in points, leading the Pioneers in scoring 18 times on the year. She also finished the season among the top 15 in the CCAA in several categories, including scoring, assists, free throw percentage and minutes played, and led the conference in steals, averaging 2.9 per contest.