After helping the Seattle University men's basketball team to back-to-back victories over Northwest University and Pepperdine University over the past week, senior guard Cervante Burrell (Sacramento, Calif.) has been named Independent Player of the Week by College Sports Madness, announced Monday by the website.
Burrell played 15 minutes against Northwest University last Tuesday, finishing with five points, three rebounds, and four assists. The rest he received against the Eagles helped later in the week, as Burrell played a team-high 33 minutes against Pepperdine, collecting 19 points, five rebounds, and seven assists as Seattle U defeated the Waves, 81-70.
In the game against Pepperdine, Burrell went 11-for-11 from the free throw line, the best performance by a Seattle U player from the charity stripe since Bernard Seals went 10-for-10 against BYU Hawaii Jan. 18, 2006. So far in the month of February, Burrell is averaging 14.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 8.0 assists per game as the Redhawks are 4-1 so far this month.
For the season, Burrell is averaging 7.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game. He is seventh on Seattle U's all-time assists list with 309 career assists with the Redhawks. This season, he is shooting 84.2 percent (48-of-57) from the free throw line, including 87.5 percent (21-of-24) over the past five games.
This is the second time in three weeks Burrell has earned the weekly honor, previously being named Feb. 6 after scoring a season-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 shooting from the free throw line against Arkansas State Feb. 4. This is the fifth straight week and seventh time overall that a Seattle U player has been recognized by College Sports Madness. Aaron Broussard (Federal Way, Wash.) has been named Independent Player of the Week four times, while Eric Wallace (Winston-Salem, N.C.) was the first Redhawk to pick up the honor this season on Nov. 28.
Seattle University, 9-14 so far this season, will host UC Davis Monday night, Feb. 20, at KeyArena starting at 7:10 p.m. Tickets for all remaining Seattle U home games are available through Ticketmaster and at the KeyArena Box Office.