WEEKS of: DECEMBER 22, 2008-JANUARY 4, 2009
Freshman small forward
RASHAWN SMALLS (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) is the NJCU Men's co-Athlete of the Week for the fifth time this season and has also been named the New Jersey Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week for the fifth time in the first seven weeks of the 2008-09 season.
Smalls, who previously won the NJAC award on November 17 and 24, and December 8 and 15, has now won the honor in five of the six weeks in which the Gothic Knights have been active this year. The lone week he didn’t receive it, December 22, the honor went to his teammate, freshman center TAQUAN ABDULLAH (Kenilworth, NJ/David Brearley).
In NJCU’s only game of the week, an 82-76 non-conference road loss to the College of Staten Island, Smalls had 15 of his 19 points in the second half, making 7-of-18 overall from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line, with a game-high nine rebounds in 27 minutes of action.
He scored 10 of NJCU’s final 20 points as the Knights cut a double-digit deficit into a five-point game in the final minutes before NJCU dropped a six-point decision.
Smalls is currently tied for the conference lead in scoring average at 17.8 points per game with 142 points in eight contests for NJCU (3-5). He is also third in steals (2.13, 17), fourth in defensive rebounding (5.00, 40), fifth in rebounding (7.3, 58), and ninth in offensive rebounding (2.25, 18). Smalls leads NJCU in each of these categories. He has added 1.5 assists and 0.3 blocks per game in 27.5 minutes of action while shooting .460 (58-126) from the field.
