Dakota Bennington Named Back-to-Back SLIAC Player of the Week

EUREKA — For the second week in a row, Eureka's Dakota Bennington (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Christian) is the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week.

The 6-foot-3 senior averaged 27 points per game while shooting nearly 60 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from 3-point range and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line in a pair of SLIAC wins over Blackburn and Principia this week. He also contributed 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

First, in Wednesday's SLIAC play opener at Blackburn, Bennington tallied 23 points on 9-for-17 shooting, along with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals as Eureka pulled off a 91-81 league win on the road.

Then, on Saturday at Principia, he dropped a season-high 31 points on 13-for-20 shooting (65 percent), made two 3s, sunk all three of his free-throw opportunities and added five rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block. The Red Devils earned a 112-93 victory to improve to 6-1 on the season and 2-0 in SLIAC play.

This is Bennington's fifth time receiving SLIAC Player of the Week honors in the past two years. 

Heading into the last SLIAC contest of the semester, he sits atop the league in points per game at 25.6 while shooting 59.5 percent from the field, 41.7 percent from 3-point range and 74 percent from the floor. He's also notched 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

Eureka (6-1, 2-0 SLIAC) will next host Westminster (2-6, 1-1) at Christine Bonati Bollwinkle and Convocation Center on Saturday at 3 p.m.