We’ve partnered with Urban Edge Network to highlight the best players in HBCU Division I men’s and women’s basketball each week.
We are past the point in the season for moral victories.
The regular-season conference championship picture is coming into focus and teams need every win they can get before the season ends. So, it makes sense that both of our HBCU Players of the Week helped their teams stack conference wins to maintain their place in the standings.
Here are Opta Analyst’s HBCU Basketball Players of the Week.
Men’s Player of the Week: Sterling Young, Florida A&M
The Florida A&M in-season turnaround continues to be one of the more notable stories in all of college basketball and Sterling Young has been a big part of it.
After starting the season 3-11, the Rattlers have won 9 of 10 games, vaulting them to second in the SWAC with a 9-4 conference record.
Young has been playing good basketball for a while (highlighted by his 37-point outburst against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Jan. 18), but last week, he featured his best back-to-back games of the season.
Florida A&M got out to a big lead in the first half and never looked back against Prairie View A&M in a 78-67 win. Young was the catalyst in the surge that broke the game open.
The Rattlers went on a 12-2 run in the first half to take a 21-16 lead and turn it into a 33-18 advantage. The Panthers never recovered.
During this stretch, Young had eight of the Rattlers’ 12 points and assisted on one of the other two buckets. He’s always been able to get hot in a hurry, and it came at the right time to turn a tightly contested game into one in which his team had breathing room. He finished with 22 points, six assists and seven rebounds.
In Young’s second game of the week, he didn’t catch fire until after halftime but stayed hot until the final whistle. He scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half to lead Florida A&M to a crucial 76-71 victory over Jackson State.
It marked Young’s second-highest point total this season and he only needed 14 field goal attempts to get there. It helped that he went 10-for-10 from the foul line.
It was FAMU’s second win of the season against Jackson State and gave the Rattlers the tiebreaker over the team they are currently tied with in the SWAC standings. Young has had some big moments this season, but his performance against Jackson State might have been the most important.
Women’s Player of the Week: Kalia Walker, Alabama A&M
Alabama A&M faced a couple must-win games to keep pace in the SWAC, and Kalia Walker delivered those wins with two performances that highlight the different ways she can be effective.
In a 69-55 victory against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Walker scored 21 points even though she only shot 1 of 5 on 3-point attempts. She scored efficiently because she shot 5 of 6 on 2-point attempts and 8 of 9 from the free throw line. With the jumper not falling, Walker forced the issue to get looks on drives and draw enough contact to get to the free throw line.
The Bulldogs had another blowout win against Mississippi Valley State, winning 95-76. Walker added 18 points in this game while only managing to hit 1 of 2 free throws. She hit 3 of 6 3-pointers to compensate for not getting to the line.
Walker had a game this week when she couldn’t hit a 3-pointer and a game when she couldn’t get to the line, but she still managed two high-scoring, high-efficiency games. It’s a testament to her versatility that she can adjust to scoring however she needs to on a given day.
The efficiency has really stood out recently for Walker. She’s been a high-volume scorer the entire season and is second in the SWAC in points per game. But it has come at the cost of being hyper-efficient. In her first 17 games, Walker only shot 50% or better from the floor two times.
That hasn’t been an issue lately. She’s shot 50% or better from the floor in three of her last four games, all efforts of at least 18 points. Her shooting percentage through 17 games was 35.0%, but it’s 48.9% over the last four.
If Walker can maintain a high level of efficiency, Alabama A&M will continue to be a player in the SWAC. The Bulldogs are currently fourth in the conference at 10-3, but just one game back of the three teams tied for first at 11-2. And they play conference leader Southern in the last game of the season.
Walker’s play will go a long way toward determining how meaningful that game will be for Alabama A&M.
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