Ben Strong Named Student-Athlete of the Week
Greensboro, N.C.(1/30/07) -- Junior Ben Strong of the men's basketball team earned Guilford College's Student-Athlete of the Week Award Tuesday. The weekly prize is presented by Guilford's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Strong has received the honor six times this season.
Strong, a 6-11, 220-pound center, averaged 22.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game in Guilford's 1-1 week. He registered his fifth 30-point game and 11th double-double of the year with 30 points and 14 boards, both game highs, in a home loss to fourth-ranked Virginia Wesleyan, Jan.28. In the 76-65 home win over Randolph-Macon Jan. 27, Strong tallied 15 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and five blocks.
Strong leads the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) in points (24.2 ppg.), rebounds (11.3 rpg.) and blocks (2.94 bpg.) and his 78 percent shooting from the charity stripe ranks seventh. He also ranks among the top-nine NCAA Division III leaders in scoring, rebounding, and blocks through games of Jan. 28, including sixth in the nation in scoring and rebounding. He has led Guilford's scorers 11 times and topped the team's rebounders in 16 of 17 games. Strong makes a team-best 56.2 percent of his shots from the floor, the ODAC's ninth-highest percentage. He starts the week with 1,169 points in 71 career games and needs 18 rebounds for 500 in his career.
Strong helped coach Tom Palombo's team improve to 14-3 for the first time since 1974-1975 with one ODAC win last week. The Quakers are ranked 24th in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, their third consecutive appearance. They begin the week ranked second in the ODAC at 8-3 and visit Washington and Lee Wednesday (1/31) at 7:00 p.m.
Guilford's SAAC is comprised of representatives from each of the school's 16 varsity teams. The group meets regularly to discuss the state of Guilford Athletics and seeks to build community among student-athletes and non-student-athletes on the campus. Recent Guilford SAAC activities include a canned-food drive to benefit local charities and dodgeball competitions among representatives from Guilford's administration and athletic teams.