FOREST, Va. – Contributing another brilliant week, Anna Giannopoulou (Athens, Greece) continued to lead the way on both ends for the Guilford College women's basketball team's top start in program history, resulting in her second-consecutive claim of Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Defensive Player of the Week honors, this time for the week ending on December 14^th, as announced by the conference offices on Monday afternoon.

With a tandem of simply superb double-double efforts, the senior averaged 20.0 points on .652/.500/.667 (15-23/2-4/8-12) shooting to go with 14.5 rebounds, 11.5 of them on the defensive end, and 5.0 assists overall while adding on seven total blocks and four total steals in the Quakers 2-0 week. Giannopoulou opened the week by leading all scorers in Guilford's blowout of Pfeiffer, netting 19 points in super-efficient fashion, making 7-of-9 from the field and all-five of her attempts at the charity stripe. In the first of her two double-doubles on the week, the Greek forward snared 13 rebounds, 11 of them on the defensive end, and dished six assists, leading all players in both categories. She also contributed a premier effort on the less-glamourous end, with four blocks and three steals in one of her best defensive efforts of her standout career. On the whole, the Quakers held the Falcons to their second-lowest scoring output of the season as their guests managed to shoot just .313 from the field and .222 from range on the night. For her encore, Giannopoulou raised the bar even further with a 21-point, 16-rebound double-double, helping GC hand Johnson & Wales University (N.C.) just their second defeat of the season. Her scoring output came on .571/.500/.429 (8-14/2-4/3-7) shooting finishing even with the game-high total, while her 16 caroms included a dozen on the defensive end and represented a new high-watermark for the senior. Finishing tied for the team-lead with four helpers, she sent back another three blocks and nabbed one steal while Guilford restricted JWU to just .342 shooting from the field and .217 from range to advance to a 9-0 open to the season.

Coming together defensively in recent weeks, the Quakers have held opponents to just over 60.0 points per game over their last six games, down nearly 5.0 points from their first three contests. More impressive is they have not allowed a team to shoot over .380 from the field in that span, while only Roanoke connected on better than one-of-every-three attempts from long range against GC. Giannopoulou has been at the center of that improvement with her blocks per game figure rising to 2.83 from 1.67 while her steals per game figure has maintained right around the 2.0 mark. Now standing at 22 total blocks at an average of 2.44 per contest, she paces the ODAC in each of these categories while ranking 14^th and 19^th in Division-III respectively. She also stands third on the team in steals with her total of 17 being good for 14^th in the conference. All the while, Giannopoulou paces the Quakers in both scoring and rebounding, propelling Guilford their top start in program history.

Recognized with an ODAC weekly honor for the first time since she was a freshman a week ago, Giannopolou is now both the first Quaker to grab ODAC weekly recognition twice in a season and three times in a career since Lindsay Gauldin '23 surpassed those totals in the 2022-23 season. She is the first player to seize ODAC Defensive Player of the Week honors twice in a career since the league adopted the two-award format ahead of the 2024-25 season.

#GoQuakes