Fresno Pacific went from zero PacWest wins to three in just a little over a week to earn Team of the Week. Latrell Williams was a rebound machine to gain Defender honors and CUH's Ross Reeves scored 50 for Player of the Week honors.
2023-24 Standings
2023-24 Statistics
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chaminade's Ross Reeves, G, Soph., 6-4, Orem, Utah
Chaminade's Ross Reeves scored 30 points against Dominican and added 20 with the game-clincher with seven seconds left in a overtime win over Hawai`i Pacific (69-66) last week. The redshirt sophomore totaled 50 points in two games with 12 rebounds, eight assists and five steals. The 30 points against the Penguins was a season high for the Utah native. The lefty sharp-shooter was 10-of-20 from three-point range on the week and knocked down seven in the 30-point game. The 2022-23 PacWest Freshman of the Year currently leads the conference in assists per game (4.1) and steals per game (2.25).
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Academy of Art's Latrell Williams, F, Sr., 6-5, Gary, Ind.
Academy of Art's Latrell Williams owned the glass in a pair of Urban Knight victories last week. He had a PacWest season-high 18 in a win over Dominican with 13 of those coming on the defensive end of the court. He totaled 29 rebounds for the week with four steals and two blocks, and had 18 points on offense. It was Williams' second PacWest Defender of the Week award this year, and he also has a Player of the Week award under his belt in 2023-24. The third-year Urban Knight lists second in the PacWest in rebounds per game with 8.6, and is now Academy of Art's career rebound leader with 628.
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Fresno Pacific
Fresno Pacific won a pair of road games last week over Azusa Pacific (56-52) and Concordia (66-60) while also avenging earlier defeats to both the Cougars and Golden Eagles. In all, make that three straight wins for the Sunbirds who were 0-6 in conference play prior to a 69-58 win over Point Loma on Jan. 13.
Harrison Pennisi had 15 ponts in the win over the Cougars and
Isaac Peralta led the way with 21 at CUI. "Our guy's belief is incredible right now," said FPU coach
CJ Haydock. "It's just a testament to their buy in, growth mindset, and character. I'm proud of our maturity, our toughness and togetherness. We know it's time to chase growth just as hard tomorrow as we have for the last three months."
SEA LIONS AND URBAN KNIGHTS SHARE RUNG NO. 7: In today's D2SIDA west region poll,
Point Loma and
Academy of Art sit tied in the seventh slot with identical 12-5 overall records. Here is the list, with records through the weekend. (1) St. Martin's 16-1, (2) CS Los Angeles 14-3, (3) CS Dominguez Hills 14-3, (4) CS San Bernardino 13-4, (5) Chico State 12-4, (6) Montana State Billings 13-5,
(T7) Point Loma 12-5, (T7) Academy of Art 12-5, (9) CS East Bay 11-6, (10) Alaska Anchorage 14-4. RV--Western Washington,
Biola, San Francisco State.
PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: The Road to San Diego for the 2023-24 Pacific West Conference Championships is about halfway traveled. After 20 games, the top six teams in the conference standings will travel to Golden Gymnasium at Point Loma for the single-elimination tournament. Here is where we sit through mid-January. (1)
Academy of Art 8-2, (2)
Point Loma 7-2, (3)
Biola 7-4, (4)
Hawai`i Pacific 5-3, (5)
Concordia 6-4, (6)
Hawai`i Hilo 5-5.
Azusa Pacific sits just one-half game back at 4-5...The Urban Knights moved into the top slot with wins over Dominican and Hawai`i Hilo last week behind
Latrell Williams (see DOW) and 44 points from
Jamal Fuller. Fuller had 29 in the double overtime victory over the Penguins, hitting 10 of 15 shots from the field, He was 15-of-17 from the free throw liine on the week...In
Domincan's wild 78-75 overtime win over Chaminade, there were 15 ties and 19 lead changes
. Marcus McCutchen had 21 points and 12 boards for the winners...
Point Loma swept the season series with Biola with a 73-68 win last Wednesday. The Sea Lions had four players in double figures, led by
Luke Smith's 19 points...
Hawai`i Pacific won a rivalry game over Hawai`i Hilo in overtime (69-66) with
Dominique Winbush putting 20 points in the books.
Nadjrick Peat had 17 rebounds and three blocks for the Vulcans...
Westmont upset Biola on Saturday (72-68) with a 39-27 advantage in the second half. The
McIntyre brothers (Adrian and Anthony) combined for 35 points,
Amir Davis had 17, and the Warriors had 11 steals in the contest.
THIS WEEK IN THE PACWEST: The second half of the PacWest season begins this week with
Azusa Pacific and
Point Loma traveling to Hawai`i to take on all three island opponents.
Westmont and
Biola will travel to
Fresno Pacific for games, while
Concordia visits
Academy of Art and
Dominican. . Ten key games dot the slate this week. To see the complete schedule and results,
click here.