CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference announced postseason awards this morning, and named Western Michigan redshirt freshman guard Lauren Ross to the All-MAC Third Team, as well as the All-MAC Freshman team. Ross had been previously listed as a sophomore for much of the season, but the conference office confirmed that she is eligible for freshman status due to the injury she suffered last season after just four games.

Ross had a breakout regular season throughout the 2021-22 campaign, and ended the year as Western Michigan's leading scorer, averaging 17.9 PPG and 4.9 RPG. She also shot at a clip of 43.8 percent from the floor, 33.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 80.7 percent from the charity stripe. Each of those three averages were good for seventh in the conference, and Ross led all conference freshman in both scoring and field goal percentage.

Lauren began her prolific play early in the season, going for 19 points and five rebounds in the Broncos' opening matchup with Kentucky State, and followed that up with 26 points on 11-18 (61.1 percent) shooting as well as five rebounds on the road against Big Ten opponent Purdue. Four games later, she began a three-game streak of 20+ points, going for 27 points at home against Valparaiso, 25 points at Indiana State, and 23 points at Detroit Mercy, aiding the Broncos to victory in each of those three contests. Her emphatic performances against Valparaiso and Indiana State earned her the first MAC Player of the Week honors for any Bronco since January of 2017.

Ross began Mid-American Conference play with 16 points and eight rebounds against Kent State in what ended up being a very important victory for WMU before rattling off another spurt of three straight 20+ point games. Lauren recorded her first career double-double on the road at rival Central Michigan, notching 25 points, 12 rebounds, and four steals before dropping 22 points, six boards, and four assists against Toledo at home the following game. Ross rounded out her second 20+ point streak at Eastern Michigan, notching her second double-double in three games with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists while shooting a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line.

Most notably, Lauren popped off for a career-high 37 points, six rebounds, and two assists at Ohio while sinking 11-20 (55 percent) from the field and 7-11 (63.6 percent) from three-point range, as well as 8-10 from the foul line. Her 37 points in that contest is the most by any Bronco in a win since WMU great Carrie Moore scored 41 against Detroit Mercy in 2006. The win against the Bobcats also earned WMU the regular season sweep and gave them the tiebreaker over Ohio for conference tournament seeding.

Her performance against Ohio, as well as her 23-point night earlier that week against Akron, netted Ross her second MAC Player of the Week award of the season. Her classroom efforts paired with her on-court performances also earned her MAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Week. Lauren again had her named mentioned with Carrie Moore, serving as the first Bronco to sweep the weekly conference awards since Moore did so in that 2006 season.

Ross ended the regular season having netted double digit performances in 25 of the 28 games she played in, and acted as WMU's leading scorer on 18 separate occasions. Out of those 25 double figure games, nine of them ended with Ross notching 20 or more points for the Broncos. Lauren is also one of just two players in the MAC to make seven threes in a game, and is also one of two MAC hoopers to go 10-10 from the foul line in a single game. Furthermore, Ross stands alone as the only player in the conference to do both in the same season.

Ross and the Broncos are back in action for postseason play on Wednesday, as they take on the Buffalo Bulls for a first round matchup of the MAC Championship in Cleveland. The game is scheduled to be the third of the day, so tip-off against UB inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on March 9 will come 30 minutes after the previous game ends and should begin around roughly 4 p.m.

For an exact time, be sure to keep up with the Western Michigan women's basketball social media pages by following us on Twitter and Instagram at @wmu_wbb or on Facebook by searching "Western Michigan Women's Basketball". Tickets are on sale now at www.wmubroncos.com/tickets, or by calling 1-888-4-WMU-TIX. We look forward to seeing you all in Cleveland!

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