DELLE DONNE DOMINATES, BONNER HEATS UP MERCURY EN ROUTE TO

PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS

NEW YORK, June 15, 2015 – Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky and DeWanna Bonner of the Phoenix Mercury were named the WNBA’s Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played June 5 through June 14.

For Delle Donne, a two-time All-Star selection and the 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the Player of the Week award is the sixth of her career.  The third-year pro currently ranks atop the league in scoring (30.5 ppg) after helping Chicago to a 2-2 record.  Among Eastern Conference players, she leads the pack in blocks (2.25 bpg), is tied for second in rebounding (7.8 rpg), ranks third in field goal percentage (.533, 40-of-75), and sixth in free throw percentage (.949, with league-high figures of 37 made free throws and 39 attempts).      

The University of Delaware product, who has been the leading scorer overall in each of her four games to date, opened the season with 31 points, eight boards, four blocks, and three steals in a 95-72 victory over Indiana.  She immediately followed that with a career-high 40-point, nine-rebound effort in a 101-93 road loss to Tulsa.  Delle Donne then posted 27 points in a narrow, 67-65 loss at Connecticut, before closing the week with 24 points, nine boards (including eight on the defensive end), two assists, a pair of steals and a block as the visiting Sky dominated Indiana, 98-72.

For Bonner, a seventh-year pro with a pair of championships and three WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year awards on her resume, this marks the fourth Player of the Week honor of her career.  Through the first week of play, she paced the Western Conference in scoring with 19.3 ppg, while also ranking sixth in rebounding (6.3 rpg), tied for fifth in steals (1.5 spg), and 10^th in both assists (2.8 apg) and free throw percentage (.862, 25-of-29), while helping the defending champion Mercury to a 2-2 start.  The Auburn University product capped the week with a game-high 22 points, along with seven boards, in an 81-66 home win over Minnesota. That effort enabled Phoenix to extend its home winning streak to 22 games (including its last five home postseason games), and gave the Western Conference rival Minnesota Lynx its first loss of the year. 

Bonner opened the season with 21 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two thefts in a 76-71 home win over San Antonio. She then followed that up with a nearly identical effort – 22 points, six boards, three assists, and a steal – in a 68-57 loss at New York, before tallying 12 points and six rebounds in a 77-74 defeat at Indiana.  In all, she scored 21 or more points and grabbed six or more boards in three of four games.

Other candidates for the WNBA Players of the Week were Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry, Connecticut’s Kelsey Bone, and the Washington Mystics as a unit in the Eastern Conference, and Minnesota’s Rebekkah Brunson, along with the Tulsa backcourt duo of Skylar Diggins and Odyssey Sims, in the Western Conference.

For more information on this week’s Players of the Week, visit www.wnba.com/awards.

2015 WNBA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Week Ending          East Player                 Team                West Player           Team

6/14/15                     Elena Delle Donne         Chicago            DeWanna Bonner       Phoenix