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Colorado State’s Ellen Nystrom has been named Mountain West Player of the Year for the second straight season, while the Rams’ Elin Gustavsson was named All-Mountain West, as the conference announced its postseason awards on Monday.
Awards winners are determined through a vote of the conference’s head coaches. Nystrom is only the third player in MW history to win multiple player of the year awards, the second to repeat as player of the year among current conference institutions (UNLV’s Linda Frohlich) and the first in MW history to repeat since 2005-06 (Utah’s Kim Smith).
Additionally, Nystrom was named to the All-Mountain West and MW All-Defensive teams. Nystrom has now earned each of those honors in all four seasons at CSU. Nystrom joins Sam Martin, Becky Hammon, Katie Cronin and Teresa James as the only players in program history to be four-time all-conference selections.
The Lulea, Sweden native adds her second MW Player of the Year honor to a list of accolades that includes being named Colorado Sports Hall of Fame Female College Athlete of the Year, Sportswomen of Colorado College Basketball Player of the Year and one of 30 candidates in the nation for the Senior CLASS Award.
Nystrom leads CSU with 15.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.0 steals per game, and is one of four players in the nation averaging 15 points per game, seven rebounds per game and five assists per game this season. Nystrom currently has 156 assists in 2016-17, the fifth-most in a single-season in program history and 30 behind her own CSU record from last season. Nystrom has 567 assists for her career, passing the CSU career assists record previously held by Becky Hammon (538). Nystrom’s career assists total of 567 also ranks fifth in MW history.
The All-Mountain West honor is the first for Gustavsson, who led the Rams with an average of 16.4 points in 18 MW games. Gustavsson adds the honor to her two MW All-Tournament accolades, including a Most Outstanding Player honor following the MW Women’s Basketball Championship in 2016.
Gustavsson has started all 30 games for the Rams this year, averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. For the season, Gustavsson is shooting .510 (171-of-335), the fourth-best mark in the conference. Gustavsson scored in double figures 12 times in MW play, including six games with 20 points or more, and recorded six double-doubles this season.
The two seniors are set to finish their careers as the winningest women’s or men’s basketball players in Mountain West history by nearly any measure. The duo are the only women’s or men’s basketball players to win four consecutive regular-season MW titles – each outright – and have the most wins in MW play (63) of any women’s or men’s basketball player in conference history.
The MW regular season champion Colorado State women’s basketball team has a bye for the opening round of the MW Women’s Basketball Championship and will begin tournament play on Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Rams are set to tip off at noon PT/1 p.m. MT on Tuesday against the winner of Monday’s game between No. 8 seed San Jose State and No. 9 seed San Diego State.