Every week for the 2016-17 season, The Catch and Shoot will name a Player of the Week, Freshman of the Week, Team of the Week and Game of the Week among the five Division I schools in the Chicago area.
Here are the winners for the 5th week of the season (Dec. 12-Dec. 18):
Player of the Week
Eli Cain, DePaul
Cain had a monstrous week, setting career highs in scoring in consecutive games. The 6’6″ guard dropped 27 points in a loss to UIC and then poured in 31 on Saturday against Chicago State. He also had four assists and two steals against the Cougars.
Cain finished the week averaging 29 points per game with a 78.6 effective field goal percentage.
Honorable mentions: Donte Ingram, Loyola; Sanjay Lumpkin, Northwestern
Freshman of the Week
Godwin Boahen, UIC
Boahen averaged 13 points and 4 assists in two games last week. The freshman from Toronto exploded for 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, nearly carrying the Flames to an upset of local rival Loyola.
Honorable mention: Tarkus Ferguson, UIC; Devin Gage, DePaul
Team of the Week
Northwestern
You can start talking seriously about the Wildcats making the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. Assuming they take care of business against IUPUI and Houston Baptist, the Wildcats will go into Big Ten play with an 11-2 record with wins against Dayton and Wake Forest and no bad losses.
MORE: Northwestern holds off Dayton for quality win at Chicago Legends
Even though Northwestern nearly blew its 24-point lead against Dayton on Saturday at the United Center, the end result of a quality victory was all the team needed.
Game of the Week
Loyola 81, UIC 75 (OT)
After blowing a 12-point lead, Loyola came from down six in the final three minutes to force overtime on Donte Ingram’s 3-pointer with one second left. The Ramblers then pulled away in overtime.
Ingram, who returned early from an MCL injury and was playing for the first time this month, finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds to give Loyola its fifth straight win against its crosstown rival.
Past awards:
