Last season forward Rachel Galligan earned the Ohio Valley Conference’s freshman of the year award.

This year, head coach Brady Sallee has two more candidates for that honor.

True freshmen Jessica Huffman and Ashley Thomas have started all but one game this season and average 17.9 and 9.4 points per game, respectively, in almost 30 minutes per game.

Before the season Sallee envisioned Huffman and Thomas paired in the backcourt with starting sophomore point guard Megan Edwards.

“From day one they figured heavily into our plans,” Sallee said. “(With Edwards) that’s a pretty good three-headed monster right there. It was a good problem to have . trying to get enough minutes for all of them.”

But those plans changed in a Nov. 10 exhibition game against Missouri-St. Louis. Edwards suffered a season-ending knee injury and Huffman and Thomas’ role changed from members in a talented three-guard rotation to starters.

“It was really hard to see her go down, especially with such a serious injury,” Thomas said about Edwards, her former AAU teammate. “It was one of those situations where you just have to take what you get.”

Huffman started the season as the Panthers’ starting point guard and scored in double figures in eight straight games. After tallying nine points on Dec. 9 at Tennessee State to end her streak, Huffman responded with 20, 25 and a school-record 38 points in the next three games and is currently the Panthers’ leading scorer.

“(Huffman) sees the floor well and she is really quick and gets to the rim,” Thomas said. “Her driving opens up the floor for the shooters like me and Meggie (Eck).”

Thomas, who is third on the team with 22 3-point shots, registered a season-high 21 points on Dec. 7 in a victory at Tennessee Tech and tallied a team-high 19 against nationally ranked Louisville on Dec. 29.

“(Thomas) is someone you can rely on to hit shots,” Huffman said. “She is unemotional on the court but she really loves to play basketball. I like to play with her.”

Sallee’s two starting freshmen have transitioned well to the college game but Thomas noted one main difference from her high school days.

“In high school you could play a whole game and you would be tired,” said the Moline native. “But it is nothing compared to the exhaustion you feel now.”

Huffman, from Whiteland, Ind., agreed with her fellow freshman teammate on the college game’s tempo.

“It is definitely a couple steps faster and the expectations are a lot higher,” Huffman said.

The expectations were greatest on Huffman.

The point guard starts and stops the Panthers. The pressure could have been daunting for someone with no collegiate experience but Huffman feels natural in this position.

“My whole life I have been a point guard, nothing but a point guard,” she said. “I was born to be a point guard.”