Wildcat Esmery Martinez picks up another nod, AP Player of the Week, for big performances in Bay Area

A new day, a new honor for Esmery Martinez.

On Tuesday, the Arizona senior was named the AP player of the week. This is the first year that AP has named a weekly winner.

Martinez adds the national award to her Pac-12 Player of the Week nod that she received Monday for her stellar performance in leading the Wildcats to their first road sweep of the Bay Area schools in 23 years that included knocking off then-No. 3 Stanford on Friday and then a 19-point win at Cal on Sunday.

Martinez averaged 18.5 points and 9.0 rebounds and was just one rebound short of a double-double in each game. She also came close to putting up a triple-double against Cal with 20 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, along with no turnovers. She scored 11 points and had four assists in a big second-quarter run that allowed UA to take a 52-28 lead into halftime.

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In Sunday’s win, Martinez was elbowed in the chin and came out of the game bleeding. Once the bleeding was stopped, she returned to lead UA to its 16th win of the season.

Martinez crossed the 1,500-point mark against Stanford. She now has scored 1,531 points in her career. In addition, Martinez is the only active player in the nation who has scored 1,500 points, pulled down 1,200 rebounds, has 200 assists and steals and 100 blocks.

Arizona now has won four straight, which is the longest winning streak in the Pac-12.

Arizona hosts No. 7 USC on Thursday and No. 8 UCLA on Saturday at McKale Center in the final two games of the regular season. The Pac-12 Tournament begins next week.