ST. LOUIS – Becca Hittner (Urbandale, Iowa) of the Drake University women's basketball team is the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week for the fourth time this season, the MVC office announced Monday, March 11.
 
Hittner helped Drake secure its third-straight outright MVC regular season title with a pair of home victories. In blowout wins over Bradley and Illinois State, Hittner averaged 22.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steal while shooting 58.3 percent (14-of-24) from the floor and 93.8 percent (15-of-16) from the free throw line in just 22.0 average minutes.
 
In the first victory over the Redbirds, she poured in a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line to go with a game-high five assists and three rebounds and one steal in 22 minutes. In the next win over the Braves, Hittner scored 21 points on 5-of-10 shooting and an impressive 10-of-11 from the line to go with four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 22 minutes.
 
Hittner, who leads the MVC in scoring at 19.9 points per game, is tied with teammate and the No. 2 scorer in the MVC, Sara Rhine (18.7 ppg), for most 20-plus games with 14 this season. Earlier today, the duo was selected to Academic All-Americans. This is the fifth career MVC Player of the Week award for Hittner and the 10th this season for a Drake player (Rhine, 6).
 
Drake is the top seed for this week's MVC Tournament, March 15-17, at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill. The Bulldogs start the tournament Friday at 12 p.m. against the winner of No. 8 Indiana State and No. 9 Valparaiso.