The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Preston Purifoy Earns C-USA Freshman of the Week
2/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB forward Preston Purifoy was selected as the Conference USA men's basketball Freshman of the Week on Monday in a vote of media members from around the league. It marks Purifoy's first freshman of the week accolade, as he becomes the fourth different Blazer this season to earn a weekly honor.
Purifoy helped lead UAB into sole possession of first place in the C-USA standings with a 68-55 road win at Houston last Saturday. In the Blazers' lone game of the week, Purifoy struck for a career-high 17 points in 22 minutes of action off the bench against the Cougars. Purifoy, who entered the game averaging 3.5 ppg, also set career-best marks with two assists, six field goals and nine attempted shots.
For the season, Purifoy leads the Blazers in 3-point field goal percentage at 45.9 percent (17-of-27) and ranks second in field goal percentage at 51.5 percent (34-of-66), while contributing 4.0 ppg and 1.4 rpg.
Jamarr Sanders (Feb. 14), Cameron Moore (Dec. 6) and Ovie Soko (Nov. 29) have each garnered the league's player of the week honor this season.
Purifoy and the Blazers will play a pair of league contests this week, which will be the final regular season contests of the 2010-11 campaign. UAB begins the week with a crucial showdown at Southern Miss (6 p.m. CT) on Wednesday, followed by a home contest against East Carolina on Saturday (7 p.m. CT).
