RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – After leading Concordia to three wins at home last week, Wayne Arnold earned recognition on the national stage, being named the D2CIDA National Player of the Week for the week of January 24-30.

Arnold is the first player from the PacWest to win this award in over four years and is the first player from Concordia to win the award since the Eagles transitioned to NCAA Division II. He joins Michael Smith (California Baptist), Petar Kutlesic (Azusa Pacific) and Darien McClain (Azusa Pacific) as the fourth PacWest student-athlete to win this award for men’s basketball.

The transfer from Cal State Fullerton has been one of the nation’s best scorers all season, but Arnold reached new heights last week as the Eagles surged up the PacWest standings into fifth place. He now ranks fourth in the nation in scoring with an average of 24.1 points per game.

He opened the week with a 25-point performance against Hawai`i Hilo. After assisting a 3-pointer he went on to score eight of his 25 points in the final four minutes of the game to lead Concordia to an 86-84 win over the team that started the week in first place in the PacWest. Arnold finished the evening 6 for 12 from beyond the arc with five rebounds and two blocks.

On Thursday, he helped Concordia defeat Chaminade, 70-62, avenging a loss to the Silverswords in Hawai`i earlier in the season. Like the first meeting, this one was a defensive battle as Chaminade was held to 33.8 percent field-goal percentage. Arnold registered four blocks in the win and scraped together 22 points with six rebounds. With a minute left, Chaminade pulled within one point. On the next possession, Arnold created enough space to take a 3-pointer with time dwindling on the shot clock, knocking it down for a 64-60 lead.

Arnold finished the busy week with his best offensive performance of the season, dropping a season-high 40 points against Hawai`i Pacific in 32 minutes. He went 9 for 13 from beyond the arc, which is tied for the sixth-most 3-pointers made in a single game in PacWest history. It is the second-most by a Concordia player in the program’s D2 era.

Arnold also blocked two shots in the win over Hawai`i Pacific extending his streak of games with multiple blocks to eight in a row for the 6-foot-3 guard. He ranks third in the nation for blocks by a guard with a total of 28 and leads all players 6-foot-4 or shorter in blocks.

Concordia is back in action tonight with a trip to La Mirada to face Biola. Since Biola joined the PacWest, Concordia won all of the first five meetings, but Biola has won the next six games.