Junior center Wendell Gibson (Far Rockaway, NY/Archbishop Molloy High School) was named the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Player of the Week, it was announced today (Dec. 15) by the league office.

Gibson earned the award with a strong week shooting the ball from both the field and the free throw line. He scored a career-high 26 points in the Pride's 87-79 loss to Monmouth on Wednesday, shooting 10-of-15 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. He followed up that performance by shooting 5-of-7 from the floor and 6-of-6 at the line in the Pride's 70-69 loss to Stony Brook on Saturday. For the week, Gibson was 15-of-22 from the floor (68.2 percent) and a perfect 12-of-12 at the line.

For the season, Gibson leads the Pride in scoring (14.8 ppg), field goal percentage (64.9 percent) and free throw percentage (88.2 percent), far exceeding his career averages of 6.3 points, 42.9 field goal percentage and 71.6 free throw percentage coming into this season. He leads Hofstra by a wide margin in field goal percentage (all four other starters are between 40-42 percent), and has shot 60 percent or better in seven of Hofstra's last eight games.

In addition, Gibson has made 29 of his last 30 free throw attempts, dating back to a miss on opening day against Marist. Three times this year, he has perfect at the free throw line while taking five or more attempts, something that the Pride accomplished only once all of last season (Gibran Washington's 5-for-5 against St. Peter's). Gibson's 9-for-9 effort against Georgia Tech on Nov. 20 was also the best single-game effort for a Hofstra player since current senior forward Danny Walker shot 10-for-10 against James Madison in the 2001-02 season. Gibson had 19 points in that Georgia Tech game, establishing a new career high, which he broke against Monmouth on Wednesday.

Gibson gave Hofstra its second CAA weekly award winner in as many weeks. Freshman guard Carlos Rivera (Miami, FL) was named the CAA Rookie of the Week last week after scoring 20 points in an 81-64 win over St. John's on Dec. 2 and hitting the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer in the Pride's 58-55 win over Columbia on Dec. 6.

Hofstra will next be in action when it entertains St. Peter's on Tuesday, Dec. 23 for a 7 p.m. contest.