City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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After each leading their respective team to a pair of victories this weekend, Saint Joseph's DeAndre Bembry and Penn's Sam Jones earned the first Big 5 Player of the Week honors of the season.

Bembry, a 6-foot-6 junior wing, averaged 17.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg and 4.5 apg as the Hawks downed Drexel (82-81) and Niagara (73-62) to begin the year. He scored 23 against Drexel, and while barely managed half of that (12) against Niagara he added in seven rebounds and six assists.

Jones averaged 22.0 ppg on the heels of some hot 3-point shooting. The 6-7 wing forward shot 10-of-21 (47.6 percent) from beyond the arc in wins over RMU and CCSU, and also got to the line 14 times, making 12 (85.7 percent).

Earning honorable mentions were Villanova center Daniel Ochefu, who had a double-double with 16 pts, 10 rebs in a win over Fairleigh Dickinson; Temple senior guard Devin Coleman, who had a career-best 19 points in 21 minutes of a losing effort against North Carolina; and Jordan Price, La Salle's redshirt junior shooting guard, who dropped 27 points in a 78-76 win over Towson on Saturday.

The women's Big 5 Player of the Week was Temple's Feyonda Fitzgerald, a junior guard who dropped 32 points in the Owls' 97-91 win over Florida to start off the year.