KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After earning Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) weekly honors earlier this morning, sophomore Alex Van Kalsbeek was named National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) men’s basketball national player of the week for Week 4, the national office announced.
Van Kalsbeek (So., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) was nominated for his performances during the week of January 3-9, and was selected out of a pool of conference award winners by the NAIA national office.
He joined the 1,000-point club on Saturday against Hastings, becoming the 49th Raider in program history to join the club. He did so in just 48 games.
He averaged a double-double last week as the Raiders picked up to huge conference wins inside the Bultman Center. In the two games, he averaged 27 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists.
In the contest against the Jimmies, he dropped a game-high 23 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists in the victory over the No. 12-ranked team in the nation.
Against the Broncos, he tallied 30+ points for the fifth time in his career – scoring 31 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four assists.
On the season, the sophomore forward is leading the team averaging 22.4 points per contest, as well as grabbing a team-leading 169 rebounds (8.9 rebounds/game). Averaging 34.4 minutes per game, the phenom has shot an impressive 65.6% from the floor (183-for279). Nationally, his 22.4 points per game sits ninth in the NAIA.
Northwestern (14-5, 6-3 GPAC) is back in action tomorrow night as they hit the road for Yankton, S.D. to take on the Mount Marty Lancers (5-14, 1-9 GPAC) in a GPAC clash to wrap up the first half of the conference season.
