Brits in College – Week 15 Recap

By Bradley Gains on February 27, 2015

With the fifteenth week of the college basketball season completed, we take a look at all the top performing Brits in NCAA Division 1 in the past seven days.

Player of the Week

Will Saunders produced a career-high 26-point haul with 6-8 shooting from downtown as well as adding 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in an 86-57 win for Charleston Southern.

“We knew we had to come out and get after it in the second half because they weren’t going to lay down for us,” said Saunders. “Our main focus was not settling, and coming out with the same intensity we had at the end of first half. We stayed with our principles defensively and made the right plays on offense. We are focusing on one game at a time but we know what’s on the line and it’s been our goal all year so we need to keep our mindset and we’ll be in good shape.”

The senior forward then scored 11 points as the Bucs fell to a 10-point defeat in mid-week. A win against High Point on Saturday can give CSU a share of the league title. Saunders and team-mate Saah Nimley rank 12th and 5th nationally in made 3-pointers per game.

“That dude can shoot the heck out of the ball,” said Nimley of Saunders. “It’s great playing with someone like Will because he’s 6-7 and can shoot over everyone. He has one of the quickest releases I’ve ever seen. Still to this day, I don’t know if he or Mathiang is a better shooter but Will definitely gets the ball off quicker and will shoot it from deeper. It makes it easier because teams will try to throw a double team at me and I can find him and he’ll let it go from 27 feet. That’s crazy to be able to do that as a four-man.”

Best of the Rest

Luke Nelson had 14 points in a 67-58 win for UC Irvine, before contributing 10 points and 7 assists in a third straight win for the Anteaters as they improved to 10-3 in the Big West Conference. GB U20 team-mate Alex Young made his return from injury with 15 minutes of action in the 63-56 win against Cal Poly.

Junior guard Teddy Okereafor came up big once again with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in a 63-60 win over Monmouth as Rider claimed a 14th MAAC victory – the most in their history. Okereafor also had 14 points and 4 assists in a previous 65-61 defeat, after netting 4-6 from 3-point range.

Jesse Chuku scored 14 points including four triples as Lehigh won 84-65 against Bucknell, while Jack Crook added four points in a 57-31 loss for Seattle. Chris Caird netted 4-6 from 3-point range for his 12 points in an 80-75 loss for Drake, before scoring 10 in a following 78-43 triumph.

Also, Iowa recorded two victories this week, with Gabe Olaseni scoring 9 and 8 points in back-to-back wins. Freshman Kingsley Okoroh had 4 points and 4 boards for Cal Bears in a loss against Stanford.

Image credit: CSU

Anyone we missed that deserves a mention? Let us know in the comments!

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