"Worcester State, Holy Cross, and WPI Garner Final @WACBAHoops Awards of Semester"

By Matt Noonan (@MattNoonan11) at @NoontimeSports

Noontime Sports Link: http://noontimesports.com/2015/12/15/mass-college-hoops-wacba-honor-roll-week-five-3/

WORCESTER, Mass. – With five weeks of college basketball officially in the books, it is now time to unveil this week’s Worcester Area College Basketball Association (WACBA) honor roll, including our players and rookies of the week. This is the final report of the calendar year.

The weekly standings and statistics will begin when we resume in January.

Men’s Player of the Week: Paul Brooks (Jr.), Worcester State (Arlington, Mass.): Brooks averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds in a 1-1 week for the Lancers. Brooks was just one rebound shy of a double-double in the loss to UNH in cross-divisional play, scoring 10 points and recording nine rebounds. In the 96-93 win over Western Connecticut, Brooks marked a career-high 28 points and had a stunning 19 rebounds on the evening for his third double-double of the season. Brooks also had a game-high four blocks in the Western Connecticut matchup. Overall, Brooks shots 63 percent from the field for the week.

Men’s Rookie of the Week: Karl Charles (Fr.), Holy Cross (Piscataway, N.J.): Charles scored a team-high 12 points against second-ranked Kansas, while posting a career-high four steals. He added 13 points, three assists and two steals in the victory over Hartford.

Women’s Player of the Week: Priscilla Dunphy (Jr.), WPI (Barrington, R.I.): Dunphy paced all scorers with 11 points as the Engineers continued their best start in program history win a road triumph at Fitchburg State.  The junior connected on 5-of-10 of her shots from the floor and added four rebounds, a steal and a block while anchoring a defensive effort that yielded just six Falcon field goals on the night.

Women’s Rookie of the Week: Kaitlyn Berkel (Fr.), Worcester State (Waterford, Conn.): Berkel led the Lancers in the 63-51 loss to Springfield Friday evening. She recorded a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds (two offensively). Berkel went 50 percent from the field.

Honor Roll:

Robert Champion (Jr.), Holy Cross (Charlotte, N.C.): Scored a career-high 22 points in the victory over Hartford, to go along with four rebounds and three steals. Also had seven points and two rebounds in only 11 minutes against second-ranked Kansas. He made 56.3 percent of his field goals and 55.6 percent of his three-pointers on the week.

Declan Soukup (Jr.), Assumption (Melbourne, Australia): In the team’s lone game of the week, Soukup posted a career-high 26 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. He finished the game 6-for-9 from the field, 4-for-5 from three and a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line.

Leonny Burgos (Jr.) Fitchburg State (Lawrence, Mass.): Burgos averaged 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contests in a 1-1 week for the Falcons. Posted 22 points, three boards, and two assists in a 91-85 win over Albertus Magnus on Monday evening before adding 17 points, four caroms, three assists and a steal in a 77-70 setback to Fisher College on Wednesday.

Ian Converse (Jr.), WPI (Woodstock, Conn.): Converse was one of five players in double figures as he came off the bench to toss in 16 points in nationally-ranked WPI’s 84-69 road win at MCLA. The junior grabbed 15 rebounds on his way to recording his second double-double of the season and equaled the most boards in a game since the first contest of the 2007-08 season.

Alex Santos (Fr.), Worcester State (Lawrence, Mass.): Santos averaged 18.5 points in a 1-1 week for the Lancers. Santos scored a team-high 18 points in the 100-66 loss to UNH. He then scored 19 points in the 96-93 victory over Western Connecticut on Thursday evening. Overall, Santos shot 38.2 percent from the field, and 81.8 percent (9-11) from the free-throw line.

Noontime Sports (and NoontimeSports.com) will once again be the home to WACBA this winter, and will post the weekly awards every Tuesday morning. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@NoontimeSports and @NoonSportsBlog), while also keeping up with WACBA (@WACBAHoops) for up-to-date news, notes, scores and more.