ARLINGTON – For the second time already this season, the Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week honor belongs to a UT Arlington Maverick as Shemar Wilson garnered the award on Monday, as announced by league officials.
 
It marks a rare feat in conference history with players from the same team being named WAC Player of the Week consecutively to commence a season as DaJuan Gordon collected the honor on Nov. 13; more information about the rarity is later in this release.
 
Wilson averaged 24 points, 7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in a pair of UTA games this past week, shooting an extremely efficient 76% (19-25) from the field and 82% (9-11) from the free throw line.
 
He began the week on Thursday at New Mexico by delivering a career-high-tying 29 points – his most against a Division-I opponent – on 11-13 from the floor and 7-9 from the free throw line. The 6-9 forward also grabbed 11 rebounds, including a season-best seven offensive, for his first double-double of the season, sixth as a member of UTA and 19th of his collegiate career.
 
UTA took the Lobos to the limit, tying the game at 80-all on a 3-pointer by true freshman Makaih Williams with 5.3 seconds left before New Mexico won it at the buzzer on a layup, 82-80.
 
On Sunday at #3 Arizona, Wilson paced UTA offensively for the second-straight game with 19 points on 8-12 shooting and 2-2 from the charity stripe to finish as the lone double-figure scorer for the Mavs. Fifteen of those points came in the 1st half, as Wilson also grabbed three rebounds and tied a UTA career high with three blocks.
 
A native of Avondale, Ariz., Wilson played in front of several friends and family versus the Wildcats. Included in the point total was just his fourth-career 3-pointer. That triple came in the 1st half as UTA had the contest tied, 37-37, with the Wildcats inside of 90 seconds to play in the opening period. However, the explosive Arizona offense used a 20-0 run bridging both halves to claim a victory.
 
Wilson is averaging a team-best 16.3 points through four games this season, while also corralling 9.5 rebounds per outing to rank 2nd on the club.
 
The player leading the Mavs in rebounding is Gordon at 10.8 per contest to go along with a 13.3 scoring average. Gordon and Wilson are the first set of UTA teammates to be named conference Player of the Week in the same season since 2017-18 when Kevin Hervey and Erick Neal both received the recognition when the Mavs were in the Sun Belt Conference.
 
In fact, since the WAC began issuing Player of the Week honors in the 1982-83 season, this is just the sixth occurrence of the same school winning each of the season's first two awards:
 
1984-85: San Diego State
1998-99: New Mexico (Pacific Division)
1999-00: SMU
2015-16: New Mexico State
2017-18: Utah Valley
 
Wilson, Gordon and the rest of the Mavs will now begin a three-game homestand bridging Thanksgiving which begins on Wednesday, Nov. 22, against Alcorn State inside the College Park Center. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
   
PURCHASE TICKETS
Secure your seat all season long to see the re-energized UTA men's basketball program in action at the College Park Center. Purchase single game or season tickets at UTATickets.com, call 817-272-9595 or email boxoffice@uta.edu.

FOLLOW ALONG
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, follow the men's basketball program on X (formerly Twitter) (@UTAMavsMBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsMBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsMBB).