NEWPORT NEWS, Va.— Massachusetts senior Maxie Esho has been named the Atlantic 10 Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week while Fordham freshman Eric Paschall earned Rookie of the Week honors. The awards, the first of the 2014-15 season, were for games played over college basketball’s opening weekend that began Friday, Nov. 14.
Esho, a forward from Washington, D.C., averaged 22 points and nine rebounds while leading UMass to a pair of victories over Siena and Boston College last week. He posted a pair of 20-plus point games, including a career-high 23 in the team's third-consecutive win over the Eagles. He opened the season with 21 points against Siena on 8-of-14 shooting. He had nine rebounds in each game and shot 59 percent from the floor and shot 59 percent from the field.
Paschall, a guard from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., opened his collegiate career with a 31-point, 10-rebound double-double in Fordham’s season-opening victory over New York Tech. He was 12-of-22 from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. He averaged 19 points and 5.5 rebounds after contributing seven points against Penn State in the 1-1 week for the Rams.
WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
Jack Gibbs finished Davidson’s season-opening win against Catholic with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals ... Davidson’s Oskar Michelsen finished 6-of-7 from 3-point range en route to scoring 18 points in his first career game ... Dayton’s Dyshawn Pierre missed a double-double by one rebound, but was perfect from the field (6-of-6) from the field for 16 points in UD’s win ... Dayton’s Darrell Davis came off the bench to be the game’s top scorer with 17 points in his college debut ... In his first game after undergoing a month of radiation treatments to treat Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma this summer, Derrick Colter to scored a career-high 26 points, going 8-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the foul line. His seven 3-pointers (in 8 attempts) - in addition to also being a career high - were one shy of the Duquesne single-game record ... Eric James had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in Duquesne’s 91-51 win over Bluefield State ... Patrick Holloway led Mason in both games, averaging 20.5 points per game, leading all scorers in both games ... Kethan Savage returned to GW’s starting lineup and provided 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in a pair of Colonials’ victories. In his first start since Jan. 18, 2014 ... Yuta Watanabe averaged 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds and made 60 percent of his 3-point attempts, becoming just the third-ever Japanese-born player in NCAA Division I history ... La Salle’s Jerrell Wright had 10 points and 13 rebounds for his 11th career double-double to help La Salle grind out a 57-52 win over Colgate in front of a sold out Homecoming crowd ... Amar Stukes of SLU tied for team lead with 10 points, scoring eight points in the second half. He Shot 4-for-7 from the field ... Hassan Martin led Rhode Island to a 2-0 week, averaging 19.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks while shooting 76.2 percent from the field ... Jared Terrell averaged 11.5 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals in 21.5 minutes per game this week for Rhode Island, earning the start in each of first his two collegiate games ... Kendall Anthony led Richmond with 18 points in the season-opening win against Radford, despite not hitting a field goal in the first half. Anthony exploded for 16 points in the second period, going 6-12 from the field with one three-pointer ... St. Bona’s Jaylen Adams tied for team-high scoring honors with 16 points in the Bonnies 77-57 win over Dartmouth after a 4-5 performance from three-point range, all in the second half ... Austin McBroom of Saint Louis scored a career-high 24 points against Southern Illinois, including the game-winning triple with 10 seconds remaining ... VCU’s Melvin Johnson had 23 points in win over SEC foe Tennessee, 20 of which game in the first half ... Terry Larrier scored 11 points, grabbed two rebounds and two steals in VCU’s win over Tennessee, tallying the most points scored in collegiate debut by a Ram in over 10 years.