By Michael Letendre

WEST HARTFORD – The University of Saint Joseph Department of Athletics recently recognized the Hartford HealthCare Athletes of the Month for the month of December.

And former Bristol Eastern basketball standout Jordan Ouellette earned the award on the women’s side over the final month of the year for her outstanding contributions to the women’s hoops program at USJ.

The award is presented to one male and one female USJ student-athlete across all university sports at the end of each month and is done so on behalf of USJ Athletics and Hartford HealthCare.

Ouellette, a sophomore forward who can also handle the ball, has taken the GNAC by storm in her first full season in West Hartford.

She dropped in her season-high of 22 points three times this year – nabbing two of those performances in the month of December.

And over the final month of 2021, Ouellette has been smoking the nets, averaging 20 points and just a hair off seven rebounds-per-game.

Currently, Ouellette leads the squad in points at 14.9 points-per-game – averaging over 25 minutes an outing while hitting over 56-percent of her shots from the field.

She’s started seven times, playing in all nine games overall, while posting 6.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals-per-game.

Her field goal percentage for the month of December was off the charts.

Ouellette dropped in 26-of-43 field goals overall for a blistering 60-percent shooting clip.

She’s had four games of seven-plus rebounds including a 13-rebound effort against Elms on November 13.

Currently, Ouellette has five straight games of 16-plus points and she’s simply on a tear. 

She’s a throw-back of the best kind as Ouellette does not shoot the ball from long range, hence the outstanding shooting percentage from the field.

Ouellette, in fact, has yet to attempt a three-pointer this season at USJ.

And in terms of scoring-per-40 minutes, if she scored at her current rate while playing the entire game, Ouellette would average 25.3 points-per-game.

Defensively, Ouellette tallied three games of two-plus steals this year.

Still wearing the very familiar no. 33 jersey, the 5-foot-8 sophomore is an Actuarial Science Major and had a standout career at Bristol Eastern under head coach Tony Floyd.

Ouellette scored over 1,000 points and started seeing varsity time as a freshmen, playing both forward and both guard positions.

She’s 15th all-time on the Bristol girls scoring list at 1,013 points and was a primetime player for the Lancers over her final three seasons.

Ouellette started 67 of the 78 games she played in, averaging 13.0 points-per-game for her career.

She hit nearly 49-percent of her field goals while competing at Eastern and her 7.1 rebounds-per-game was an excellent contribution to the team.

And Ouellette has been very successful at every level she’s competed at.

The squad from West Hartford went a perfect 3-0 in December after a 3-3 start to the campaign.

At 6-3 overall, another victory for the women’s program at USJ would equal the team’s best start since 2013.

The Blue Jays are back at it this coming Tuesday as the team hits the road for a contest at Saint Joseph’s in Maine.