Emma Pellicano, ’17, forward player on the women’s basketball team and psychology major, is Allegheny College’s Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 1 as well as the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Player of the Week in women’s basketball. She earned these honors after a 33 point performance level this season.

Beginning the 2014-2015 season with a win of 105-69 against Penn State-Altoona on Nov. 15, 2014, the women’s basketball team continues their winning streak with three consecutive wins in their three recent games against Albion, Washington & Jefferson and Waynesburg.

Pellicano gives all the credit of these wins, as well as the honors she has received, to her fellow teammates.

“It’s definitely a nice recognition and it’s not just me who gets all of the accolades. It’s a lot to do with the team and the team really helps me out getting all of the awards,” said Pellicano.

In return, her teammates rely on her and see her as an important player on the women’s basketball team.

“She’s our most important player. We can count on her for pretty much everything. She’s also a very hard worker in practice which helps push other people in practice. Probably the most important thing about her is that she doesn’t give up and she always hustles for the ball when something goes wrong,” said Rachel Vigliotti, ’17, point guard and Pellicano’s roommate.

“She’s a huge contributor. She always has a large number of points. She always makes a difference in the game, always, you know, goes hard one hundred percent of the time and she’s just a key all-around player offensively,” said Marina Scarantino, ’15, guard.

This is not first time Pellicano received these honors. In January 2013, she received NCAC Player of the Week twice for averaging 15.5 points and 9.5 offensive rebounds as well as for a 26-point performance that month.

She continues to improve her performance level and strives to improve her game.

“She’ll be breaking the 1,000-point line soon,” said Vigliotti.

Pellicano has been playing and improving in basketball since her days as a child and sees it as a family game.

“My mom played all through high school and my grandpa played in college, so I just kind of grew up with it. I played a lot of sports as a kid, but I just chose basketball in high school,” said Pellicano.

Basketball is not the only thing that Pellicano does at Allegheny College, however. Being a student she has to focus on her studies and her basketball career all at the same time. For some, it would seem to be a difficult task, but for Pellicano, it has its benefits.

“It’s definitely hard, especially we’ve been playing a lot of away games. So the travelling takes up a lot of time, but we try to use practice as our break from studying. So, it actually helps a little bit with managing your time and you know you have to get stuff done because you have stuff to do,” said Pellicano.

For Pellicano, she hopes that the women’s team continues to strive and do better than they did in last year’s season when they ended up six in the conference which was short of their goal. For this season, they hope to host the quarter-final game after getting into the top four.

“That’s our main goal right now and of course to make it to the championship game,” said Pellicano.

Allegheny College is a part of the NCAC, who fosters a relationship in intercollegiate athletics for a total of ten academically selected colleges. If Allegheny makes it to the top four, they will be able to host a quarter-final game.

After college, Pellicano said that she hopes to continue into a career that deals with her psychology major. She said that she is unsure of which path to take right now, but she is currently looking into counseling.

Pellicano will also keep up with her passion for basketball by joining some adult leagues later in her life because she is not planning on taking it to the professional level at this point.