Eight days ago the Colorado women's basketball team was supposed to take the day off and go to a movie together.

They did go to the movies on Feb. 4. But afterward, freshman Brittany Spears went into the gym for an unofficial shoot-around by herself.

Since then, Spears has scored 19 points in each of her last two games and on Monday it earned her Big 12 rookie of the week honors. It was her second rookie of the week award this season.

Her back-to-back 19-point performances came off a mini slump in which she had scored 18 points in her previous three games combined.

"It's just not giving up," Spears said of breaking out of the slump. "I had to keep confidence in myself and listen to the coaches."

Spears averaged 19 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2 blocks per game in contests against Nebraska and Oklahoma this past week.

Overall, she leads all Big 12 freshmen in scoring (13.8 ppg), rebounding (7.0 rpg), blocked shots (1.5 bpg) and free-throw percentage (.875).

Colorado coach Kathy McConnell-Miller pointed to a break-through moment with Spears during the Oklahoma State game on Feb. 2.

During one play on defense, Spears thought Jackie McFarland was going to get out and defend a 3-point shooter. But McFarland wasn't able to and Spears stayed in the paint. McConnell-Miller called a timeout and started getting after Spears because McConnell-Miller thought Spears was supposed to defend the shooter.

But Spears defended herself, telling the coach she was told to "never leave the block."

It caught McConnell-Miller off guard, but in a good way.

"It was awesome," McConnell-Miller said, laughing. "I was like, 'You're right. I did tell you that.' I was like, 'Jackie rotate over!' "

McConnell-Miller is also throwing more challenges Spears' way.

During one stretch of play at Oklahoma on Saturday, McConnell-Miller had Spears play shooting guard for the first time this season while McFarland, Caley Dow and Courtney Dunn played the forward positions and Bianca Smith ran the show at point guard.

McConnell-Miller said that lineup gave her team a big rebounding advantage and she may use it again. The switch called on Spears to take a more active role in setting screens, among other chores.

"(Spears) has never run that spot and she really picked it up," McConnell-Miller said. "She really responded."