After being placed on the Cheryl Miller Award watch list ahead of her third season, Indiana women’s basketball junior guard Yarden Garzon was named to the award’s top 10, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced Wednesday.
The Cheryl Miller Award honors the top small forward in Division I. Garzon joins former guard Grace Berger, who was waived by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever on Sunday, as the only Hoosiers to be named top 10 finalists.
Garzon leads the Cream and Crimson, who are 14-7 overall and 6-4 in Big Ten play this season, in scoring with 14.7 points per game. She also averages 4.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
During Indiana’s victory over Washington on Jan. 27, Garzon scored a career-high 35 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the field alongside 8-for-10 shooting from 3-point range. She also became the 33rd Hoosier to score 1,000 career points, joining graduate student guard Chloe Moore-McNeil, who accomplished the feat against then-No. 4 USC on Jan. 19.
Garzon is shooting 42.6% from the field and 41.4% from beyond the arc. She sits 22nd nationally in 3-pointers made and 17th in 3-pointers per game.
Fan Voting for the award begins Friday on hoophallawards.com as the fan vote will count as one committee vote. In March, the list will be trimmed to five before the winner is selected.
Garzon and the Hoosiers return to action at 6 p.m. Thursday against Rutgers (9-13, 1-10 Big Ten) at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and Savannah Slone (@savrivers06) and columnist Ryan Canfield (@RyanCanfieldOnX) for updates throughout the Indiana women’s basketball season.
