By Jim Richards

One player is trying to lead her club to its first win of the season and the other is the stabilizing force of one of the top teams in the nation.

Together, SMCC’s Ashley Sparks and Tyrone Kelley gathered the school’s first ACCAC basketball players of the week awards last week (the week ending Jan.20).

Sparks, a sophomore out of Shadow Mountain, put together a mammoth week, first netting 18 points with 16 rebounds against Pima and then scoring 19 points with 15 rebounds in a narrow loss to ACCAC Div.II-leading Chandler-Gilbert.

Kelley, the go-to guy of the No.9-ranked Cougars who sat out four seasons after playing as a freshman at Eastern Arizona,  poured in 26 points with six assists in a 92-89 upset loss at Pima and followed that with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists in an 81-59 victory over Chandler-Gilbert.