LOS ANGELES _ Los Angeles Sparks center Jantel Lavender has been named the WNBA's sixth woman of the year, the league announced Wednesday. She is the first Sparks player to win the award, which was first given out in 2007.
This came a day after Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike was named the league's most valuable player. Lavender averaged 18.2 minutes and 9.6 points per game off the bench this season, and scored in bunches with her mid-range jump shot. The 6-foot-4 center received 26 votes from a panel of 39 sportswriters.
Lavender scored a combined 31 points in the Sparks' back-to-back wins to end the regular season, and scored 10 or more points in seven of eight games in the middle of the summer. She also averaged five rebounds per contest, and shot an efficient 53.8 percent from the field.
"I just feel like teams don't expect a center to be able to shoot, and when you can it's a big weapon," Lavender, 27, said after the Sparks beat the Phoenix Mercury on Sept. 13. "It's just something different for a big, and a lot of times the girls who are guarding me don't want to come out of the paint to defend my jumper."
Lavender came off the bench in every game this season after starting in 2014 and 2015. She helped the team to a 26-8 regular-season finish and the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs.
The Sparks were hosting the Chicago Sky Wednesday at Long Beach State in the opener of a best-of-five semifinal series.
