Freland’s career-high scoring leads to Player of the Week honors

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – After leading the Storm with a career-high 23 points in No. 12 Simpson's statement win over No. 5 Wartburg on Saturday, sophomore Regan Freland has been named American Rivers Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week.

This is the second time in her career Freland has received conference player of the week honors. The Prairie City, Iowa native previously earned the title last March after tallying a season-high 17 points including the game-winning triple against none other than the Wartburg Knights.

Fueled by her second career game with five three-pointers, Freland led all scorers with 23 points during Saturday's contest. She connected on one of the five triples that helped Simpson gain a 20-3 advantage in the first five minutes of the game and went into the locker room with 13 points after scoring 10 within a span of two and half minutes in the second quarter. Eight additional points in the third quarter helped Simpson boast a 31-point lead over the nationally-ranked Knights.

In Simpson's 3-0 start to the conference season, Freland posted scoring totals of seven, 18 and 23 points to lead the team and rank fifth in the league with 16.0 points per game. Twenty-seven of her points came behind the arc as the sophomore averaged three triples per game to rank second in the A-R-C.

Freland becomes the 10th student-athlete to earn A-R-C Player of the Week honors for Simpson and second from women's basketball. Along with Freland, Jenna Taylor collected the weekly honor twice for women's basketball this season, women's soccer had four recipients, men's soccer had two, and men's cross country and women's golf each had one.

Simpson will compete in two non-conference tournaments over Christmas break before returning to Cowles Fieldhouse on Jan. 5 to resume conference play. The Storm will take on Alfred and Westminster in Daytona, Fla. on Dec. 20-21 and Wis.-La Crosse and Bethany Lutheran in Dubuque on Dec. 29-30.