By Brenda June Temple
1/8/2024
WCU senior guard is tied for the national lead with 12 double-doubles
Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina senior guard Vonterius Woolbright made program history on Monday as he became the first Catamount men’s basketball player to collect Southern Conference Player of the Week honors for the fifth time in a single season. Woolbright again averaged a double-double last week with 20 points and 14.5 rebounds per game in leading WCU to a 2-0 record as a part of the program’s best start to a season during its NCAA Division I era.
Woolbright has collected a league-best five weekly honors to date this season, the only SoCon player to have received the award on multiple occasions. All told, he has earned five of the nine weekly awards handed out this season and tallied the league’s two monthly awards for November and December.
The conference office selects the SoCon’s weekly award winners from nominations submitted by the sports information or media relations personnel at each institution.
Previously, WCU standout Frankie King earned the SoCon Player of the Week plaudit four times during the 1993-94 season. Woolbright matched the former second-round NBA draft pick with his fourth weekly honor back on Dec. 26, 2023. Now with five weekly awards in his WCU career, Woolbright matches former first-round NBA draft pick Kevin Martin (2001-04) who also tallied five honors in his career. Woolbright is just one shy of matching WCU’s best as King procured six weekly awards in his time in Cullowhee from 1993-95.
Woolbright recorded a pair of double-doubles on the week, accomplishing the double-dip in the first half in both weekly victories as WCU opened Southern Conference play. He scored 40 points and pulled down 29 rebounds between the two league wins last week. Woolbright finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and dished out seven assists in the 80-71 SoCon-opening road win at The Citadel on Wednesday, Jan. 3. He followed it up with an 18-point, 14-rebound, and five-assist performance in the 70-66 home league win over Wofford on Saturday in Cullowhee.
With his pair of double-doubles last week, Woolbright has 12 on the year to keep him tied for the most in the NCAA. He is tied with Enrique Freeman of Akron.
Woolbright continues lead to the Southern Conference with a 21.1 point per game average – a mark that ranks him 10th in the NCAA – while also pacing the league in rebounding at 12.4 boards per game, third in the NCAA. Among his rebounding totals are an NCAA-best average of 10.2 defensive rebounds per game. Woolbright also ranks third in the SoCon in assists at 5.1 per outing, a mark that is tied for 42nd nationally.
Through the first two conference games, Woolbright ranks third in scoring (20.0 ppg), leads in rebounding (14.5 rpg), and is third in assists (6.0 apg).
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