Elon MBB: Santa Ana Earns Lou Henson National Player of the Week Award

BOSTON – Elon University men’s basketball senior guard Steven Santa Ana has been named the CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson National Player of the Week, as announced on Monday afternoon, March 4.

Santa Ana, who was named the CAA Player of the Week earlier on Monday, nearly averaged a triple-double with 27.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists during Elon’s 2-0 week while also shooting 52.5 percent (21-40) from the floor and 47.8 percent (11-23) from three-point range.

The senior began the week notching a game-high 20 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to help Elon cruise to a 73-58 victory on Thursday, Feb. 28 at James Madison. He scored 14 of those points in the opening half to lead the Phoenix to a 38-24 advantage at the break. Santa Ana then put together a masterful performance on Saturday, March 2, against the Tigers, finishing one assist shy of a triple-double recording a career-high 34 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. He scored 20 of his 34 points in the opening half to give the Phoenix a 13-point advantage and finished 7-of-11 from three-point range in Elon’s 86-66 rout of Towson.

Santa Ana is the first player in program history to earn the CollegeInsider.com Lou Hen National Player of the Week award and just the second Phoenix all-time to earn any recognition for CollegeInsider.com’s Lou Henson Award. Lucas Troutman ’14 was named to the 2013-14 CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Preseason All-American Team on Oct. 3, 2013. Santa Ana becomes the third CAA player this season to earn the weekly honor as Hofstra’s Justin Wright-Foreman collected the award on Dec. 10 and Nathan Knight of William & Mary was tabbed with the honor on Nov. 26.

The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I mid-major player. It is named in honor of Lou Henson who coached for 41 years and retired sixth all-time in career Division I wins with 779. He is one of only 12 coaches in the history of the game to take two schools to the Final Four. The weekly honor recognized the top player among the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic.

The Phoenix heads to North Charleston, S.C. to begin its journey through the CAA Men’s Basketball Championships as the No. 7 seed on Saturday, March 9, facing No. 10-seeded UNCW in the first round at 6:30 p.m. on CAA.tv.

2018-19 Lou Henson National Player of the Week Award Winners
(March 4): Steven Santa Ana, Elon
(Feb. 25): Jeremy Combs, Texas Southern
(Feb. 18): Bryce Aiken, Harvard
(Feb. 11): Miye Oni, Yale and Daishon Smith, UL Monroe
(Feb. 4): Zac Cuthbertson, Coastal Carolina
(Jan. 28): Garrison Mathews, Lipscomb
(Jan. 21): Andrew Kostecka, Loyola University Maryland
(Jan. 14): Justin Turner, Bowling Green
(Jan. 7): Daishon Smith, UL Monroe
(Dec. 31): Devin Cannady, Princeton
(Dec. 24): Milan Acquaah, California Baptist
(Dec. 17): Akwasi Yeboah, Stony Brook
(Dec. 10): Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra
(Dec. 3): Nijal Pearson, Texas State
(Nov. 26): Nathan Knight, William & Mary
(Nov. 19): Jordan Lyons, Furman
(Nov. 12): A.J. Brodeur, Penn