Feb. 27, 2007

Knoxville, Tenn. - University of Tennessee basketball star Candace Parker has been named the SEC Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday. Parker wins the award for the fifth time this season and the sixth time in her illustrious two-year stint at Rocky Top.

In three games last week, Parker averaged 25.7 points and 14.7 rebounds per contest, which included two contests against top-15 opponents. The sophomore also stopped 13 shots during that span for an average of 4.3 per outing. Against Vanderbilt, she swatted six Commodore attempts to help hand her in-state rivals their worst SEC loss of the season (73-53) and give her Lady Vols a clean sweep through the toughest conference in the country.

At Arkansas, the Naperville, Ill., native grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds and drained all five of her free throw attempts to help UT overcome the Lady Razorbacks in overtime, 75-68. The Big Orange clinched the regular season SEC title at LSU on Monday, paced by Parker's CISCO Player of the Game performance - 27 points and 12 rebounds.

She continues to ascend the UT record books, moving into third place for single-season blocks (81) and fourth place for career (167) stuffs. Her double-double against Vanderbilt on Sunday was No. 17 for the season, giving her the most ever by a Lady Vol sophomore. She has 27 career double-doubles, which ranks sixth all-time in the UT annals.

The No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, the Lady Vols travel to Duluth, Ga. for a 1 p.m. ET contest on March 2 against the winner of the South Carolina/Auburn game, which will be played on Thursday, March 1. The tournament will be held at the Gwinnett Center. Games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be aired live on RSN TV and Sunday's championship game will be shown on ESPN2. Tip off for the title is 7:30 p.m. ET.