OGDEN, Utah – Eastern Washington’s Venky Jois and Idaho State’s Geno Luzcando were named the Big Sky Conference men’s basketball co-Players of the Week after leading their teams to two straight victories in last week’s action.
Luzcando, a sophomore from Estacion Central, Chile, had a stellar week offensively averaging 23 points in the Bengals’ wins over Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. In ISU’s 87-68 win over Southern Utah on Thursday, Luzcando scored 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting. He followed with an outstanding scoring performance in Saturday’s 88-66 win over NAU, hitting 10-of-10 from the field for the second time this season with three of his field goals coming from behind the arc. He finished the game with a career-high 30 points.
Jois, a senior from Boronia, Australia, led the Eagles to wins over Portland State and Sacramento State last week. Against Portland State on Thursday, Jois scored 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting with nine rebounds and two assists in a 112-83 win. In the Eagles’ 74-67 win over Sac State on Saturday, he scored 24 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. For the week, he averaged 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds while making 63 percent of his shots from the field (19-of-30) and 75 percent from the free-throw line (9-of-12). With 1,616 points in his career, Jois is only 125 points behind the school record of 1,741 held by Ron Cox.
This is Luzcando’s first career weekly honor in the Big Sky Conference. For Jois, this week’s award marks the fourth time he had received a Big Sky Player of the Week nod.
Others nominated: Nate Sherwood – Idaho; Walter Wright – Montana; Casey Oliverson – Southern Utah; Joel Bolomboy – Weber State; Jordan Davis – Northern Colorado; Drick Bernstein – North Dakota; Cameron Forte – Portland State; Marcus Graves – Sacramento State
Press release courtesy of Jason Ashcraft – Big Sky Conference. All Rights Reserved.
