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Bello Taiye
Photo by: Brad Rempel

Bello Shares Big Ten Player of the Week Award

12/9/2019 12:31:00 PM | Women's Basketball

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota senior Taiye Bello earned the first Big Ten Player of the Week honors of her career, the league announced Monday. She shared the award with Penn State's Kamaria McDaniel.

Bello averaged a double-double with 20.5 points and 13.0 rebounds as Minnesota went 2-0 last week to run its win streak to seven games. She also averaged 3.0 blocks and 2.0 steals as the Gophers won at Notre Dame and at American.

In a 75-67 win at Notre Dame Tuesday as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenege, Bello continued her double-double run with 16 points and a season-high 16 rebounds (10 of which came on the defensive end). She made eight of her career-high 15 shot attempts, and she also showcased her defense with five blocks, one off her career high.

Sunday in a 70-53 win at American, Bello recorded her fourth straight double-double and her sixth in eight games this year as she posted a career-high 25 points to go with 10 rebounds. Bello added three steals and a block as she went 9-of-14 from the floor (tying a career high in made field goals) and 7-of-10 at the line. Eleven of her 25 points came in the decisive fourth quarter as Minnesota scored the final 15 points of the game.

Bello is the first Gopher to win Big Ten Player of the Week honors since Carlie Wagner was recognized on Feb. 19, 2018. It's the third straight week with a conference honor for the Gophers, though, as Sara Scalia was named Freshman of the Week on Dec. 2 and Destiny Pitts was named to the Player of the Week Honor Roll on Nov. 25.
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