Carpenter Grabs Third POTW Award (1/2/07)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings sophomore Alira Carpenter has been named the Heartland Conference player of the week for the week of December 25-31.  The award is Carpenter’s third in the last four weeks and the sixth for a Lady Yellowjacket this year.

Carpenter, a sophomore guard from Lewistown, Mont., has been shooting the lights out all season and still had one of the best shooting nights of her career in an 84-60 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State in the Yellowjackets’ Heartland Conference opener on Saturday.  She tied the school record for 3-pointers in a game, knocking down 7-of-11 from behind the arc.  She is the fourth player in school history to make seven 3-pointers in a game and the first since 2004.  Her record-tying 3-pointer came with 15 minutes remaining in the game, but she sat for seven of the final 14 minutes with the Jackets leading by as many as 35. 

Carpenter scored a game-high 26 points, adding two assists and three steals.  She was 7-of-12 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line.  For the season she is shooting over 50 percent from 3-point range and averaging 18.1 ppg.  Carpenter now ranks twelfth in school history for career 3-pointers and moved over 500 career points just 11 games into her sophomore campaign.