KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (release) -- For the first time in her career, Tennessee sophomore Cierra Burdick has been named SEC Women’s Basketball Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday.

Burdick, a 6-foot-2 forward from Charlotte, N.C., earned the honor after averaging 13 points and 12.5 rebounds for Tennessee in contests against a pair of top-15-ranked teams last week. She came off the bench to register double-doubles in each of those games and now has three double-doubles in the past four contests and a total of five this season.

She scored a personal SEC game-high 15 points and pulled down a career-best 14 rebounds, as the Lady Vols upended No. 13/15 Texas A&M on Thursday night to claim their third SEC regular season title in the past four seasons and 17th overall.

Burdick scored 11 points and collected 11 rebounds vs. No. 10/10 Kentucky in UT’s 78-65 setback in Lexington on Sunday. She also blocked a career-best four shots vs. the Wildcats.

For the week, Burdick shot 42.1% (8-19) from the floor and 90% from the free throw line (9-10). She is averaging 8.4 points and 7.1 rebounds in 21 games this season for ninth-ranked Tennessee, overcoming a broken bone in her right hand that sidelined her nearly all of January.

Burdick and her teammates will begin SEC Tournament play at noon on Friday, as the top-seeded Lady Vols take on the winner of Thursday’s Arkansas-Florida game.