JERSEY CITY, NJ…Freshman forward Marci Shepard (Nutley, NJ/Nutley) of the New Jersey City University women’s basketball team has been named the New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie-of-the-Week, the league office announced Monday. It was the first time Shepard has been named the conference’s top rookie. The award covers games played during the entire holiday period, December 10, 2001-January 6, 2002.
During that time span, the Gothic Knights (5-7) won three straight games, including two by a combined margin of 94 points. Through games of January 7, NJCU has won four straight overall. The last time NJCU won four consecutive games was during the 1989-90 season.
After setting a career scoring high with 13 points against Richard Stockton College on December 8, Shepard set two more career highs as NJCU defeated SUNY-Farmingdale, 94-50, on December 12 and Medgar Evers College on December 15, 78-28. Shepard averaged 12.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for the stretch, while shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 82.4 percent from the line.
The 5-foot-10 power forward scored a game high and career high 16 points with seven rebounds on 8-of-9 shooting from the line in 19 minutes off the bench as the Knights crushed Farmingdale.
Then, in the 78-28, 50-point blowout of Medgar Evers College, Shepard notched a career scoring high for the third straight time. In what was her first collegiate start, Shepard scored 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting and also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and a career-high seven steals. Prior to this game, Shepard only had two steals in her previous eight games.
She scored two points and had four rebounds in only 13 minutes as NJCU handled CCNY, 69-63, in their final game of the holiday stretch, on December 30.
Overall on the season, Shepard is fourth on the team with a 7.4 scoring average, and has 5.7 rebounds per game. She is third in the NJAC in free throw percentage, hitting 33-of-42 attempts (78.6 percent). She easily leads NJCU in the category. In addition, in her 11 games, she is shooting 44.4 percent from the field (24-54).
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