Editor's note: Charlie Creme, Graham Hays, Michelle Smith and Mechelle Voepel each vote to determine espnW's national player of the week, which is awarded every week of the women's college basketball season.
Virginia Tech's Vanessa Panousis proved it's not necessarily how many points you score, but when you score them that's truly important.
Thanks to the guard's fourth-quarter work, the Hokies won a pair of road games -- 64-59 at Penn State on Thursday and then a 57-43 stunner over eighth-ranked Tennessee on Sunday in Knoxville. Panousis, a 5-foot-7 junior, is the espnW Player of the Week.
Panousis totaled 37 points in the victories, but she scored 21 of them over the final quarter of each game. Battling foul trouble throughout Thursday's contest, Panousis made the most of her 25 minutes against the Lady Lions. She scored 16 points -- 12 coming in the fourth, including 4-of-4 from the free throw line in the final 30 seconds -- to secure the win in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
The Lady Vols were a tougher task, but Panousis was even better, scoring a season-high 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Her final 3-pointer gave Virginia Tech the lead to start the fourth quarter, and her six free throws in the final minutes helped put away Tennessee.
Panousis was perfect on all 14 of her attempts from the free throw line in the two games.
The upset of Tennessee was the Hokies' first over a top-10 team since 2012, when they won at Maryland. The Lady Vols had won 44 straight home games against unranked opponents before the outstanding, late-game work from Panousis and her teammates.
To lend even more perspective on Panousis in crunch time: Penn State and Tennessee combined for 23 fourth-quarter points. Panousis had 21.
Her work from long range is also no surprise. The Sydney, Australia, native set the Virginia Tech single-season record with 77 3-pointers in 2014-15 and is hitting 47 percent of her shots from behind the arc this season. Panousis leads the surprising Hokies with 13.5 points per game.
Picked to finish 13th in the ACC, Virginia Tech is 7-1 for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
Also nominated: Kristine Anigwe, Cal; Breanna Stewart, Connecticut; Lexi Eaton Rydalch, BYU
Previous winners: Kelsey Mitchell (Nov. 29) | Courtney Walker (Nov. 22)