The Atlantic 10 Conference has named Richmond senior Nathan Cayo and Saint Louis senior Javonte Perkins as A-10 Co-Players of the Week. Davidson freshman Sam Mennenga was selected as the league’s Rookie of the Week. The awards were announced Monday and are for games played during the opening week of College Basketball Nov. 25-29.
Perkins led the Billikens in scoring in wins against SIU Edwardsville (22 points) and LSU (32 points), and he led all A-10 players in scoring in the opening week with 27 points per game. A forward from St. Louis, Perkins. shot 62.1 percent from the floor, 61.5 percent from 3-point range, and was perfect from the free throw line in the Billikens’ first two games. He also dished out a career-high five assists against LSU, and 26 of his game-high 32 points against LSU came in the second half.
Cayo was named the Most Valuable Player at Bluegrass Showcase as Spiders beat No. 10 Kentucky and Morehead State. The Montreal, Quebec native led Richmond with 18 points in the win at Kentucky. The forward scored game-high 23 points versus Morehead State on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting, becoming the seventh player in A-10 history to go 10-of-10 or better from the field in a game. Cayo totaled 41 points while shooting 78 percent from the field (18-23) and added seven rebounds, and two blocks.
Mennenga turned in a solid collegiate debut with 12 points and nine rebounds in 29 minutes. The forward from Auckland, New Zealand, finished 4-of-6 (.667) from the floor, drilled a 3-pointer and converted 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the season-opening win for the Wildcats.
HONOR ROLL
Hyunjung Lee had 23 points on 8-of-14 (.571) shooting, including 5-of-10 (.500) from 3-point range with nine assists for Davidson … Jordan Miller averaged 20 points, including drilling eight 3-pointers in George Mason’s win over Howard, while collecting three assists, two blocks and four steals for the week … La Salle freshman Jhamir Brickus averaged 10.5 points on an impressive 9-of-11 (.818) shooting … Fatts Russell scored 17.5 points per game while averaging 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals across four games for Rhode Island … Rhody freshman Ishmael Leggett tallied 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting in the Rams’ win against San Francisco … Saint Joseph’s Taylor Funk was impressive in his return from injury, averaging 17.5 points, and 6.5 rebounds over two games, while shooting 60.9 percent (14-23) … VCU freshman Adrian Baldwin, Jr. had an impressive debut at the point, registering 19 assists over three games to averaged 6.3 assists per game in a 2-1 week for VCU.
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