Editor's note: Charlie Creme, Graham Hays 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.
After her team nearly upset second-ranked South Carolina in late November, Arizona State coach Charlie Turner Thorne feared Sophie Brunner was lost for the season. The Sun Devils' leading scorer had left the court in a wheelchair after suffering an ankle injury.
Turner Thorne might never have been so happy to be wrong. While Brunner missed six games, the junior forward is back -- and Arizona State is 7-0 since her return.
The Sun Devils' last three opponents -- then-ninth-ranked Stanford, Washington and Washington State -- shot a combined 35 percent from the field and averaged a mere 45.7 points per game. In anchoring a defense that just had one of the greatest weeks in recent memory, Brunner is the espnW national player of the week.
Her overall numbers -- 11.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, 51 percent shooting -- might be modest, but what Brunner spearheaded, along with senior point guard Elisha Davis, was not. The Sun Devils held Stanford to 31 points last Monday, the lowest single-game total in the Cardinal's long, storied history. Brunner recorded the 11th double-double of her career (12 points, 10 rebounds) in that one.
Arizona State then held the Huskies 17 points below their average in Seattle on Friday, and the Cougars, who were also playing at home, managed just 45 points on 32 percent shooting Sunday.
The stalwart defense is no fluke, though. The Sun Devils rank in the top 20 nationally in points allowed per game and also held ranked opponents Cal (49) and Syracuse (54) to their lowest point totals of the season. Only Connecticut held Florida State, which ASU beat 68-56 on Dec. 21, to a more meager total.
The trio of convincing wins has vaulted Arizona State to the top of the Pac-12 standings as the league's only unbeaten at 4-0. For a second straight season, the Sun Devils are exceeding expectations.
Brunner, the unflashy yet relentless embodiment of what has characterized ASU's recent success, was also the team's top rebounder over the three games in which the Sun Devils were plus-39 on the glass.
Even more significant, perhaps, was that Brunner logged the club's most minutes, illustrating that the ankle injury, and the fears that went along with it, are something of the past.
Also nominated: Danaejah Grant, St. John's
Previous winners: Kelsey Mitchell (Nov. 29) | Courtney Walker (Nov. 22) | Vanessa Panousis (Dec. 6) | Makayla Epps (Dec. 13) | Megan Podkowa (Dec. 20) | Kelsey Mitchell (Jan. 4)