PITMAN --- The New Jersey Athletic Conference has announced its men's basketball weekly award winners for the week ending Feb. 15.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
JACOB MORALES • Montclair State University
Senior • Forward • Montvale, NJ/Pascack Valley
Morales earned his third NJAC Player of the Week recognition after powering the Red Hawks to a 2-0 conference week as Montclair State is ranked #1 in the nation by D3hoops.com for the second straight week. Last week, the Red Hawks earned the #1 spot for the first time in program history. Morales averaged 26.5 points on .514 shooting along with 5.5 rebounds, six steals, and five assists. Morales erupted for seven three-pointers in a 28-point performance against NJCU on Wednesday before following up with 25 points and eight rebounds in a victory over Kean on Friday. For the week, he connected on 11-of-26 from beyond the arc. Morales currently leads the NJAC in conference-only 3-pointers per game (3.1). He is also third in 3-point percentage (40.2%), fifth in conference-only field goal percentage (48.1%), scoring(17.9 ppg), and assists (3.3 apg), and among the top 10 in conference-only rebounding (6.1 rpg) and steals (1.7 spg).
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
DONOVAN CRAWFORD • New Jersey City University
Junior • Forward/Center • North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick
Crawford has been selected as NJAC Defensive Player of the Week after dominating the glass in a 1-1 conference week for the Gothic Knights, pulling down a career-high 15 rebounds in a competitive loss to #1 Montclair State before adding eight more boards in a crucial victory over TCNJ. He was the hero in Friday's senior day game, hitting the game-winning layup to give NJCU a 70-69 victory in the final regular season home NJAC game in program history. Crawford also contributed four steals and one block across the two games while averaging 11.5 rebounds per contest. He is currently third in the NJAC in conference-only rebounding (8.8 rpg) while chipping in 11.6 points per game.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
CRISTIAN NICHOLSON • Montclair State University
Freshman • Guard • Mine Hill, NJ/Morris Catholic
Nicholson garners his seventh and Montclair State’s eighth NJAC Rookie of the Week honors after contributing to another perfect 2-0 conference week to move to 24-0. The Red Hawks are ranked #1 in the nation for the first time in program history after garnering the top spot in last week's D3hoops.com poll, and maintained the spot this week. He averaged 13.0 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.5 rebounds while shooting .500 from three-point range. His best performance came Wednesday against New Jersey City, where he posted 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists. He followed that with an 11-point, six-assist, four-rebound effort in Friday's victory over Kean, shooting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. For the week, Nicholson shot .471 from the field and .800 from the free-throw line while orchestrating the offense. He currently ranks third in the NJAC in conference-only assists (4.6 apg) and second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1), and is fifth in conference-only steals (1.8 spg).