Pictured Above: Senior guard JoJo Cooper, who claimed his second NEC Player of the Week Award on Monday (Credit: Dave Saffran)
Somerset, NJ – Senior guard
JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord) was named the Northeast Conference (NEC) Player of the Week for the second time this season, the league office announced on Monday.
Cooper,
who earned his first NEC weekly citation on December 18, led the Seahawks to a perfect 2-0 record for the week which propelled Wagner into a first-place tie in the conference standings with Robert Morris. The Wilmington, DE native nearly averaged a triple-double with 14.0 ppg, 8.5 rpg, and 9.0 apg. He also contributed 1.5 spg and shot close to 43.0 percent from three-point range.
The senior point guard opened the week on Thursday with 17 points, 10 assists, and five rebounds as the Green & White came back from an early nine-point deficit early in the second half to upend then second-place, Saint Francis U, 73-64, at the Spiro Sports Center.
The highlight of Cooper's evening against SFU came at the 16:22 mark of the second half when he flew down the court and went behind-the-back to find teammate
Chase Freeman for the layup in a play made the No. 5 spot on ESPN's #SCTopTen.
Two days later, in a first-place showdown with Robert Morris on Saturday, Cooper posed his second double-double of the week and sixth of the season with 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in a 62-49 triumph over the Colonials.
Cooper has etched his name all over the NEC statistical leaders, ranking first in assists (6.0), second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.97), third in steals (1.8) and double-doubles (6), 11th in rebounding (6.1) and 13th in scoring (14.1). In NEC-only games this year, Cooper ranks first in assists (6.4), while tied with St. Francis Brooklyn's Glenn Sanabria in three-point field goal percentage (54.5%). He also ranks second in defensive rebounds per game (6.3), third in minutes (37.4), sixth in rebounding (7.5), eighth in assist/turnover ratio (1.82), tenth in scoring (15.8) and among the top-15 in field-goal percentage (47.8%).
Playing in his 110th career game as a Seahawk against the Colonials, Cooper's team-leading eight assists marked the 71st time in his career that he has led or tied for the team lead in helpers, which includes 17 of 19 games this season. Over his last five games, in which the Seahawks are 4-1, Cooper is pouring in 17.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 6.4 apg, while converting on 51.8 percent from the floor and 56.3 percent from outside the arc in 37.2 minutes per game.
The Seahawks now gear up for their Western Pennsylvania road trip, which begins against Saint Francis U on Friday, January 26 in a 5:00 p.m. contest that will be nationally broadcast on ESPNU. The road voyage then concludes on Sunday, January 28 in Pittsburgh, PA against the Robert Morris University Colonials at PPG Paints Arena for a 2:00 p.m. start.
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