Sports

Chugiak’s Kelsey Griffin wins MVP honors as Australia’s top women’s basketball player

Kelsey Griffin’s legend continues to grow Down Under.

The 2005 Chugiak High grad and former NCAA All-American capped her best season as a professional basketball player Monday by winning the Australian Women’s National Basketball League’s MVP award.

It’s the first time the 6-foot-2 Griffin has won the league MVP award but it’s the second time this month she has garnered a major award. Griffin was named the WNBL Grand Finals MVP after leading the Canberra Capitals to the league title with a 93-73 win over the Adelaide Lightning on Feb. 16.

Griffin, who starred at the University of Nebraska before going pro, averaged 19.3 points and a league-best 11.6 rebounds this season. She ranked fifth in the league with 1.8 steals per game and eighth with 1.0 blocks per contest. Griffin earned 119 out of 189 possible votes to win the MVP title, outdistancing Dandenong Rangers guard Bec Cole, who got 99 votes, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Griffin scored 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the title game, and afterward told the Canberra Times she’s “in talks” to potentially return to the WNBA, where she played for the Connecticut Sun from 2010-2014.

Since 2012 Griffin has been a fixture in the Australian league, first with the Bendigo Spirit, where she played until joining Canberra this season. In addition to her three Finals MVP awards, Griffin is also a former WNBL Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time WNBL All-Star Five honoree. The naturalized Australian also helped her adopted country win a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Matt Tunseth

Matt Tunseth is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and former editor of the Alaska Star.

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