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Another exciting week of SEC basketball is in the books. On Monday, the conference announced its latest honorees.
For Feb. 24, 2 standouts are being recognized as Players of the Week: Alabama’s Mark Sears and Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier. Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears is the Freshman of the Week.
Sears had a sensational week for Alabama in ranked action. Against No. 15 Mizzou and No. 17 Kentucky, Sears averaged 32.5 points, 4.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1 steal. He scored his 65 points in the week on 37 field goal attempts, shooting 54.1% (20-of-37). Sears had 35 points in UA’s loss to Mizzou and followed that up with 30 points in the win over Kentucky. He’s the first Division I player this season to have back-to-back games of 30-plus points, and just the second player to do so in the last 20 years.
Lanier’s Volunteers had only 1 game last week, but the Tennessee guard earned his Player of the Week recognition. The 5th-year senior logged 30 points and 5 rebounds in Tennessee’s 77-69 win at No. 7 Texas A&M. Lanier is only the second SEC player in the last 20 seasons to put up 30 points in a road win over an AP top-10 opponent, and the only conference player to do it in league action. He hit 8 3-pointers in the spotlight showdown.
Oklahoma played ranked foes Florida and Mississippi State last week. The Sooners went 1-1, but Fears was a standout performer in both games. In the loss to UF, Fears led all scorers with 22 points, draining 4 3-pointers to tie a career-high. In the win over MSU, Fears became the just second SEC player since 1996-97 to post a statline with least 27 points, at least 10 assists and at least 5 rebounds in a game. It marked the first double-double of his career.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
