HIGH POINT, N.C. – High Point University men’s basketball redshirt-junior forward John Brown has been named the Big South Player of the Week, the league announced Monday.
In addition, Brown was named the College Sports Madness Big South Player of the Week and ESPN’s Dana O’Neil named the Jacksonville native her national player of the week on Monday. It marks the second time this season and fifth time overall that Brown has received Big South weekly honors.
Brown averaged 27.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and made 20-of-29 field goal attempts (.690) to lead HPU during a 2-0 week for the Panthers. The Jacksonville, Fla., native also converted 15-of-18 free throw attempts (.833) in an efficient week for HPU.
In Wednesday’s comeback win against Winthrop, Brown tied a career-high with 34 points (11-16 FG) while connecting on 12-of-15 (.800) free throw attempts. He also grabbed five rebounds and swatted two shots in the game. With HPU down 10 to the Eagles with 2:29 to play, Brown scored eight of the Panthers’ 13 points and made all six of his free throw attempts in crunch time. With the Panthers trailing 72-71 with three seconds left, Brown hit a pair of game-winning free throws to send HPU home with the improbable comeback win. In all, he scored 22 of his 34 points during the second-half comeback.
On Saturday at Campbell, Brown poured in a game-high 21 points and six rebounds (three offensive) in 32 minutes of work. The redshirt-junior made 9-of-13 field goals in the game and converted on 3-of-3 attempts from the charity stripe. During the week, Brown eclipsed the 1,500-point plateau for his career and is now just one of four players in Big South history to post 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 blocks and 100 steals in a career.
Brown is fourth in the nation with 187 field goals made this season and also ranks in the top-40 nationally in scoring (18.9 ppg, 28th) and field goal percentage (.557, 33rd).
Brown and the Panthers return to action on Wednesday when HPU takes on Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m. inside the Millis Center.