Matt Willms picks up C-USA Player of the Week Award

Matt Willms posted his best week as a Miner and was rewarded with the C-USA Player of the Week Award announced by the league Monday morning.

Willms scored 52 points for the week and made 24-of-31 shots (77.4 percent) as UTEP split a pair of road games. First, he scored a career-high 27 points in the Miners’ 65-62 loss at WKU on Thursday.

Willms made 13-of-16 shots against WKU and he also established career-highs for field goals made (13), field goals attempted (16) and minutes (35) in the game while adding four rebounds, a block and two steals. The 27 points were the most by a UTEP big man since John Tofi scored 30 at Southern Miss on Feb. 11, 2006. It also marked the most points by a UTEP player this season.

Saturday at Marshall, Willms followed up his Thursday performance with a 25-point, seven-rebound performance as UTEP handed Marshall its first home loss of the season, 91-68, on Saturday. Willms shot 11-for-15 (.733) from the field and added three assists and a steal over 29 minutes.

This is the first career C-USA Player of the Week award for Willms, but he did earn C-USA Freshman of the Week honors on Nov. 11, 2013 and the second C-USA Player of the Week for UTEP this season.