DAVIS, Calif. -- A pair of team-best performances has netted UC Davis junior Pele Gianotti her first career Big West Conference Player of the Week honor after helping the Aggies remain in first place heading into the final week of the regular season.

Gianotti is only the second UC Davis honoree this season along with teammate Morgan Bertsch (Dec. 26), which marks the first time that the Aggies have had two players earn the conference's weekly award in the same year since Cortney French and Sydnee Fipps did so on Nov. 26, 2012, and March 4, 2013, respectively.

The Myrtle Creek, Ore., native torched the nets against the league's Central Coast contingent, averaging 22.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in wins over Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, hitting 12-of-19 (.632) from the field and 7-of-11 (.636) from beyond the arc, while making all 13 of her free throw attempts on the week.

She opened with a season-best 25-point explosion in the win over the Mustangs, hitting 6-of-7 from the field, 4-of-4 from distance, and a career-best 9-of-9 from the line, to finish just one point shy of matching her career high of 26 points set last season at Saint Mary's. The performance against Cal Poly marked the fourth 20-point game of the season for Gianotti -- three of those coming in the eight games.

Three days later, she helped the Aggies to a "Senior Day" victory over the Gauchos in the regular season home finale, finishing with a game-high 19 points and four rebounds, while also hitting on 50 percent from the floor in a nine-point UC Davis triumph. She hit four more from the line to extend her run to 13 consecutive made free throws.

The two victories extended the Aggies' win streak to eight consecutive games, setting a new Division I single-season mark and the longest since UC Davis won nine-in-a-row from Jan. 19-Feb. 23, 2006.

In addition to her Big West award, Gianotti was also named the Big West Player of the Week as announced by the website College Sports Madness. She joins Bertsch, who has twice been named the league's player of the week by the organization, as Aggies who have won weekly honors from the website.

Winners of 20 games for third time in the program's Division I history, UC Davis closes out the regular season on the road this week, returning to Southern California in search of its second Big West regular season title, and its first since the 2009-10 season. UC Davis takes on UC Riverside on Thursday (March 2) at 7 p.m., before traveling to Northridge, Calif., to take on CSUN on Saturday (March 4) at 2 p.m.

ALL-TIME UC DAVIS BIG WEST PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Anna Harp - 11/19/07
Jessica Campbell - 12/24/07, 1/21/08
Heidi Heintz - 12/7/09, 12/23/10
Paige Mintun - 3/8/10
Vicky Deely - 11/22/10
Cortney French - 11/26/12
Sydnee Fipps - 3/4/13, 12/23/13, 2/23/15
Alyson Doherty - 11/30/15
Morgan Bertsch - 12/26/16
Pele Gianotti - 2/27/17