Oklahoma's Austin Reaves and West Virginia's Sean McNeil shared Big 12 Men's Basketball Player of the Week. McNeil is a first-time recipient.
McNeil averaged 23.5 points for WVU in a 1-1 week against top 25 opponents. He had a career-high 26 points in the win at No. 7 Texas Tech and followed that with 21 points vs. No. 12 Oklahoma. The junior guard hit five 3-point field goals in each game. He shot 60 percent from the floor, 58.8 percent from the 3-point arc and 87.5 percent from the free throw line for the week.
McNeil has started 15 of 20 games this season, averaging 11.6 points per game. He has hit 45 3-pointers, shooting 38.8 percent in 116 attempts. He has also made 36 of 41 free throws (87.8 percent).
He averaged 5.5 points per game last year in 15 minutes per game off the bench.
West Virginia is 14-6, 7-4 in the Big 12 Conference, and ranked 13th in Monday’s Associated Press national poll. The Mountaineers, coached by Bob Huggins, are led by Moeller grad Miles “Deuce” McBride, who averages 16.3 points per game.
McNeil, a junior, spent his freshman season at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, where he averaged 29.7 points per game was first-team All-American. He scored 40 or more points six times including a career-high 55.
At Cooper, he led the Jaguars to the state final in 2017, averaging 17 points and 6.3 rebounds. He graduated from Cooper second in career scoring at 1,265 points.
He is the second Cooper grad to be honored by a major conference today.
Lexi Held received her second Big East weekly accolade on Monday heading into No. 22 DePaul's conference showdown against Seton Hall at 6 p.m. that will be televised nationally Monday night on FS1.
Held was named to the Big East Honor Roll after leading the Blue Demons to an 81-73 victory over St. John's last Wednesday in Queens, N.Y.
The junior guard finished with 14 points, a career-high eight assists, six steals and four rebounds. The six steals tied a career-high and gave Held 19 in the last four games, nearly five per game.
On the season, Held is averaging 15.5 points a game and leads DePaul in assists (four per game) and steals (three per game). She has been a double-figure scorer in all but one game in 2020-21 and leads the Big East in steals, steals per game and three-point attempts.
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