LOCAL ROUNDUP: HPU trio earn men's, women's weekly basketball honors
Feb. 6—CHARLOTTE — High Point University's Kezza Giffa and Titas Sargiunas on the men's side and Lauren Bevis on the women's side have been selected for this week's Big South Conference weekly basketball honors.
Giffa, along with UNC Asheville's Drew Pember, were named Men's Basketball Co-Players of the Week while Sargiunas was chosen Freshman of the Week. Bevis was selected Women's Basketball Player of the Week.
Giffa averaged 25.0 points and 5.0 assists while shooting 53% from the field and 93% from the foul throw line in a pair of wins. He had 24 points, seven assists and a steal in the Panthers' win over Longwood. He then tied a Big South single-game record with 22 made free throws en route to a team-best 26 points in High Point's victory over Presbyterian.
Meanwhile, Sargiunas averaged eight points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists while making 6 of 12 from the field. He played a season-high 27 minutes against Presbyterian and scored a season-high 13 points — knocking down two big shots in the final minutes of the game to help the Panthers extend their program-best winning streak and stay undefeated in the conference.
Bevis shot 52% from the field and averaged 17.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals in two High Point wins. She went 10 of 16 in scoring 22 points at Longwood, adding five rebounds and four steals. Eighteen of her points came in the second half as the Panthers rallied from double digits down at halftime. She added 13 points, going 6 of 6 at the foul line, and five rebounds at Presbyterian
Radford's Terissa Lavoile-Brice was also selected the Women's Basketball Freshman of the Week.
BIG SOUTH TOURNEY TICKETS ON SALE NOW
CHARLOTTE — Single-session tickets for this year's Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships are now on sale.
High Point University will host this year's tournament in the Qubein Center. Games will start Wednesday, March 6, and continue through the championship games Sunday, March 10.
Tickets will be sold by session, which will feature two games. Wednesday will be one session, while Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be two sessions each. Tickets for Sunday's championships will be sold separately.
Prices range from $20 for reserved seats to $75 for courtside seats, as well as $15 for groups of 15 or more. Tickets can be purchased through High Point's ticket office as well as www.bigsouthsports.com/tickets.
HPU'S MAYEA EARNS WEEKLY LACROSSE HONOR
WASHINGTON — High Point University's Brayden Mayea has been selected the Atlantic 10's Men's Lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week.
He was joined by Richmond's Connor Knight as the Defensive Player of the Week and Richmond's Gavin Creo as the Rookie of the Week.
Mayea, a senior attacker from Canada, scored four goals in the first half and added an assist in Saturday's season-opening victory against Mercer. He led the game with five points and picked up seven ground balls for the Panthers.
UNCG'S LANGLEY NAMED SOCON PLAYER OF THE WEEK
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — UNCG's Keyshaun Langley has been named the Southern Conference's Men's Basketball Player of the Week.
Langley, a graduate student guard who starred at Southwest Guilford, averaged 23.5 points per game in a pair of road wins — earning his second Player of the Week award this season.
Langley scored 17 points, making four 3-pointers, plus tallied three rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block against VMI. He then scored a career-high 30 points at Furman, connecting on six 3s, while totaling four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
For the week, Langley averaged 23.5 points and 3.0 steals per game, shooting 50% from the field, 63% from outside, and 88% from the foul line.
UNCG (17-6, 8-2 SoCon) hosts Samford (20-3, 9-1) on Thursday in a matchup of the league's top two teams. The game will air on ESPNU at 7 p.m. The Spartans welcome Chattanooga (15-8, 7-3) on Saturday.