Darien McClain was selected the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Division II Men's Basketball Player of the Week after the 5-foot-9, 160-pound guard averaged 31.5 points and was nearly-perfect from three-point range to lead Azusa Pacific to a pair of Pacific West Conference road wins last week.

Across both games, he shot 81 percent (17-for-21) from the field and was 93 percent (14-for-15) on three-pointers. He also sank 15-of-18 free throws (83 percent) while averaging 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the victories.

McClain scored 33 points while hitting 7-of-8 three-pointers in an 84-67 win at Holy Names, adding 8 rebounds and 3 assists. He followed that performance with a conference- and school-record for most three-pointers in a game (7) without a miss as he went 7-for-7 from beyond the arc in a 30-point performance to lead the Cougars to a 90-57 victory over Notre Dame de Namur, which was Azusa Pacific's largest margin of victory against a conference opponent in the past four seasons.

McClain is the second player from Azusa Pacific to collect Division II's top weekly honor in the brief four-year history of the USBWA National P;ayer of the Week award program, joining Petar Kutlesic (Dec. 13, 2016) as national player of the week recipients.

With last week's road wins, Azusa Pacific improved to 8-5 overall and 4-1 in conference play, giving the Cougars sole possession of first place in the PacWest standings heading into an 11-day break between games. Up next is a Dec. 30 visit to Concordia in Irvine, followed by home games in the first week of the New Year against Fresno Pacific (Jan. 3) and Biola (Jan. 6).