Carrying their respective teams to a pair of wins last week earned UC Riverside's Kemie Nkele and Cal Poly's Kristina Santiago Co-Big West Player of the Week honors, for the week ending Feb. 1. This is Nkele’s fourth award of the 2008-09 season and 10th of her career, ranking her third all-time in the Big West, while Santiago collects her second accolade.

Nkele, who went 5-of-11 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the charity stripe, scored a game-high 22 points in the Highlanders' 64-43 win over UC Irvine Thursday evening. Two days later against Cal State Fullerton, the San Diego, Calif., native drained a game-high 27 points and grabbed six rebounds. Playing all 40 minutes against the Titans, Nkele was a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line. The senior forward has led the Highlanders in scoring in the last four games as she has helped push UC Riverside’s win streak to six straight and eight of the last nine.

On the week, Nkele posted a .536 field goal percentage and a .938 free throw percentage, while averaging 24.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Behind the scoring efforts of Santiago's career-high 29 points, Cal Poly opened the week with a 76-67 nonconference win over Cal State Bakersfield. Her 11 field goals was also a career best. The Santa Maria, Calif., native added six rebounds, four assists and two blocks to her total. Thanks to a game-high 18 points by Santiago, the Mustangs picked up their fifth Big West win after defeating Cal State Northridge by a score of 68-61.

For the week, Santiago shot .563 from the floor and .846 from the charity stripe, while averaging 23.5 points and 6.0 blocks per contest. She also led Cal Poly in points (47), blocks (5), blocks per game (2.5), steals (5) and steals per game (2.5).

Others nominated: Toni Thomas (Cal State Fullerton), Katrina Thompson (Cal State Northridge), Lynea Williams (Long Beach State), Rebecca Maessen (UC Irvine), Jenna Green (UC Santa Barbara), Janae Young (Pacific).