Stailee Heard Earns Big 12 Player of the Week after Triple-Double against Iowa State

Stailee Heard earned Big 12 Player of the Week on Tuesday, a day after she was named the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Player of the Week.

It was a big week for Heard, which helped make for a big week for the Cowgirls. She followed up her third consecutive 20-point game with her first career triple-double. All the while, the Cowgirls are on three-game winning streak and, as of writing, sit one game out of first place in the Big 12 standings.

Heard got off to a bit of a slow start by her standards. Last season’s All-American only managed to reach the 20-point mark once in non-conference play, but she turned it on once the Cowgirls hit conference play.

On Wednesday, Heard’s 21 points and game-high nine rebounds helped the Cowgirls take down Kansas 85-76 on the road. Then on Sunday, the Cowgirls hosted No. 19 Iowa State. The banged-up Cyclones have been stumbling of late but Heard and the Pokes gave them a genuine thumping.  She turned in 18 points, a career-high 17 rebounds and 10 assists for her first career triple-double and the third in program history. She also added two steals and a block and was a game-high +33 in her 37 minutes.

That performance made Heard the first Big 12 player of this century to record at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, per OSU. She’s also just the second Division I player to do so against a ranked opponent since at least the 1999-2000 season.

Heard earned Big 12 Player of the Week once last season. Heard and the Cowgirls get a week off between games without a midweek contest. They head to Colorado to face the Buffaloes at 2 p.m. Sunday.