Marquette University Athletics
James named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week
1/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
James leads MU into Tuesday night game at DePaul
Click here for game notes in PDF format.
January 16, 2006 ? For the second time this season Marquette point guard Dominic James has been named the BIG EAST Conference?s Rookie of the Week. James won the season?s first award for the week of November 21.
The 5-11 Richmond, Indiana native led the Golden Eagles to a 1-1 week by averaging 20.5 points, 6.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds. James poured in a career-high 28 points and added eight assists, six rebounds and two steals in MU?s 104-85 loss at no. 16 West Virginia on Saturday.
Earlier in the week the freshman point guard helped Marquette secure its first BIG EAST Conference road victory by scoring 13 points and dishing out four assists in a 67-63 victory over Seton Hall.
James, who is fourth in scoring among Division I freshman, is averaging 14.6 points, 5.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds through 17 games.
This is the third time a Marquette freshman has earned the weekly honor. Jerel McNeal was selected for the week of November 28.
James brings his second weekly honor into Marquette's game with DePaul on Tuesday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
The meeting between the two teams is the 102nd time in series history, with the two teams playing 30 times over the last 14 seasons.
Like Marquette, DePaul is young. The majority of their scoring comes from underclassmen. So far this season 66.2 percent of DePaul?s points have come from freshman or sophomores. Also like Marquette, an upperclassman leads the team in scoring. Junior Sammy Mejia scores at a 15.3 points per game clip.
Mejia has been playing well as of late. In his last 11 games, he is averaging just under 17 points and 5.5 rebounds. He is also shooting above 50 percent at 50.4 (69-for-137) from the field. He has scored 20 or more points in six of the 11 games including 24 at Wake Forest and 23 against both Dayton and Florida International. Not only has he been a scoring threat, but he also leads the team in assists at 2.3 per game.
Coming off the bench, Draelon Burns has been a key contributor to the DePaul attack over the last month. Burns is averaging 15.1 points in the last 10 games, second on the team in that time frame. He is coming off a career-high 24 points against Rutgers in DePaul?s overtime loss on Sunday.
Freshman Wilson Chandler has been solid on the glass this season for DePaul, averaging a team best 7.3 boards per game. He grabbed a season high 16 rebounds against Dayton.
>
