After dominating the defensive glass and providing a scoring boost on the offensive end, Florida Southern College women’s basketball junior Julia Jenike has been named as the Sunshine State Conference Defensive Player of the Week, the SSC office announced on Monday.
Jenike averaged 14.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game as the Moccasins went 1-1 last week, holding both Flagler (W, 78-69) and Bentley (L, 62-65) to less than 70 points a game. The Mocs outrebounded opponents by an average of 35.0-30.0 in the two games, with 50 of their 70 total rebounds coming on the defensive glass.
In last Wednesday’s win over Flagler, Jenike scored 15 points and had six rebounds, one block, and one steal off the bench. She also dished out a game-high six assists in the contest. She followed that up with 13 points and five rebounds in a close loss to Bentley. All five of her rebounds against the Falcons came on the defensive end of the floor, and 10 of her 11 total rebounds last week came on the defensive glass.
Florida Southern currently ranks third in the SSC in scoring defense (59.8 ppg) and fourth in defensive rebounds per game (28.0). Jenike has pulled down 18 rebounds in four games this season, with 16 coming on the defensive glass.
The SSC Defensive Player of the Week honor is the first of her career and makes her the fifth student-athlete in program history to earn the honor since the conference began the weekly award during the 2015-16 campaign. Former Moccasins Jensen Blassage and Gianna Vastola also won SSC Defensive Player of the Week honors once in their careers, while Mariah Harris was a two-time winner and Anja Fuchs-Robetin won a program-record six.
Florida Southern opens conference action this week with a pair of road contests at Embry-Riddle (Nov. 20) and Barry (Nov. 23).