Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

RICHMOND, Va. – University of Delaware freshman women’s basketball sensation Elena Delle Donne has been selected as the Co-Player and Rookie of the Week by the Colonial Athletic Association for the ninth time this season after leading the Blue Hens to a 1-1 week. Delle Donne (at right), who leads the nation in scoring with 26.9 points per game, broke 10 records and tied another while averaging a double-double.

Delle Donne, a forward/guard Naismith National Player of the Year and Wooden Award Midseason Top 20 candidate, averaged 39.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per outing for Delaware, while adding three assists, five blocks, and a pair of steals to her statistics.

During Delaware’s 88-83 overtime loss at James Madison on Thursday, Delle Donne trumped the school’s previous scoring record of 39 with a 54-point performance. Earlier this year against Buffalo, she tied the single-game mark originally set by Lori Howard against Temple on January 27, 1981. In fact, not only did Delle Donne destroy the women’s record at Delaware, but also surpassed the UD men’s basketball record of 52 set by Liston Houston on Feb. 19, 1910 against Lebanon Valley, played exactly one day shy of a century prior to Delle Donne’s 54.

Delle Donne’s 54 points also eclipsed the conference scoring record of 51 set by George Mason’s Keri Chaconas against East Carolina on February 17, 1995, while her 18 field goals ties the CAA mark shared by former UNC Wilmington stars Tressa Reese and Wanda Carroll.

Her 54 points were the most by any NCAA Division I men’s or women’s player this season and seventh highest total in NCAA women’s basketball history since 1982. The 54 points were the most since Jackie Stiles of Missouri State dropped in 56 points vs. Evansville on March 10, 2000, and doubles as the NCAA Division I freshman record for points in a contest, again, since the compilation of stats began in 1982.

The performance helped the Wilmington, Del. native to break the arena scoring record, topping the previous mark of 45 set by Basketball Hall of Famer and former Navy star David Robinson against JMU on January 10, 1987.

In addition, her seven three-pointers (7-for-8) set a new single-game record that was previously held by three players with six, and helped her to 55 on the season to break the previous season record of 49. Megan Dellegrotti had held the record since the 2000-01 season. Delle Donne also slashed the Delaware record for most field goals in a contest with 18 (18-for-28). Howard previously held the record with 16 set during her 39-point performance against Temple.

The performance helped Delle Donne to her sixth 30-point game, of her then 23-game career, to become the only Blue Hen to have more than five in a career. Howard, who also previously had the scoring and field goals per game records, tallied five during her career, 1977-81.

Three days after setting the Delaware single-game points record with 54, Delle Donne continued her assault on the record books as she broke the program’s single-season scoring mark while helping the Blue Hens cruise past William & Mary, 65-52, on Sunday. She dropped in a game-high 24 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season, to eclipse Tyresa Smith’s single-season scoring record of 632 set during the 2006-07 campaign. As of now, Delle Donne stands at 646 points with three games still remaining in the regular season.

In addition to leading the nation in scoring, Delle Donne currently ranks fourth in free-throw percentage, 13th in three-point field goal percentage, 29th in double-doubles, 33rd in blocked shots per game, 45th in field goal percentage, 54th in rebounds per game, and 72nd in three-point field goals per game. The Wilmington, Del. native also leads the nation having scored 41 percent of her teams’ points in games in which she has played. She has scored 646 of the Hens’ 1,575 points scored in her 24 active games.

Delle Donne stands as the only player in the nation to rank in the top 50 in each of the three shooting percentages: field goals (45th), three-pointers (13th) and free throws (4th).

Delle Donne ranks among the individual leaders in the league in scoring (1st, 26.9 ppg), rebounding (1st, 9.1 rpg), free throw percentage (1st, 91.3%), defensive rebounds (1st, 6.5 rpg), minutes played (1st, 38.0 mpg), blocked shots (2nd, 2.1 bpg), three-point field goals made (2nd, 2.3 3-pg), three-point field goal percentage (2nd, 44.4%), and field goal percentage (3rd, 50.3%).

James Madison’s Dawn Evans was named Co-Player of the Week after guiding the Dukes to a 2-0 week.

Delaware will next return to the Bob Carpenter Center to face Northeastern on Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., its third-to-last regular-season game of 2009-10.