NEW ORLEANS-Georgia State freshman D’Marcus Simonds led the Panthers to a pair of key road wins and earned Sun Belt Player-of-the-Week honors as announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.
Simonds earned Georgia State’s second honor of the year and first of his career with wins at Troy and South Alabama. He becomes the first freshman guard to win the award since Georgia Southern’s Tookie Brown earned the honor on Feb. 8, 2016.
Simonds’ efforts helped GSU move into a tie for first-place in the Sun Belt at the mid-point of conference play. Georgia State has now won six-straight, including four-straight on the road. Senior Jeremy Hollowell earned player of the week recognition just two weeks ago as the winning streak began.
The freshman finished the week averaging 23.5 points, while shooting 20-of-26 (76.9 percent) from the floor. He grabbed 4.0 rebounds, dished out 4.0 assists and swiped 2.5 steals per game.
On Saturday, Simonds tied a career-high with 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting in a six-point win at Troy. He grabbed six rebounds, dished out three assists and swiped two steals. As part of that effort, he was named College Sports Madness National Mid-Major Player of the Week on Monday morning.
Monday night, he scored 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting with five assists and three steals in a three-point win over South Alabama. At one point late in the second half, he scored 13-straight Georgia State points.
For the season, he is averaging 12.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 58.5 percent from the floor. He has upped those averages to a team-high 18.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in conference play, while shooting 60.3 percent from the floor.
Georgia State will return home to face rival Louisiana on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. in the GSU Sports Arena. Tickets can be purchased by calling 404-413-4020 or by visiting GeorgiaStateSports.com/Tix.
