BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Marcus Thornton and McNeese State’s Courtnee Hollins were named the Men’s and Women’s Player of the Week by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, it was announced on Thursday.
Thornton, a junior guard for the Tigers, averaged 30.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in LSU’s games last week. The Baton Rouge, native scored 38 points in a victory at Auburn, including the Tigers first 15 points by hitting his first five three-point attempts. He then hit two treys in the final minute to get LSU back from a five point deficit to win 81-80. His point total was the most points by an SEC player since 2004 and the most in an conference game since LSU’s Ronnie Henderson scored 40 at Alabama in February 1995. Thornton came back later in the week to collect his sixth consecutive game of 20 or more points at Alabama.
Hollins, a junior guard for the Cowgirls, scored a game high 30 points to lead McNeese State in a 81-74 upset victory over East Division leader Lamar. Despite fighting flu-like symptoms, Hollins shot 57.1 percent from the field, making eight of 14. She was nearly flawless from three-point range, making six of eight for 75 percent to help the Cowgirls set the school’s single game record with 16 three-pointers. Hollins was also flawless from the free throw line, making all eight attempts. She has scored 20 or more points in the last four games and five of six SLC games and has scored 30 or more points in two out of the last four games.
The LSWA selects a weekly Player of the Week for men’s and women’s basketball from a list of nominations submitted by the state schools.