Dakota Bennington Receives SLIAC Player of the Week Honors

EUREKA — Last week, Dakota Bennington (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Christian) was selected to participate in the Dark Horse Dunker competition.

This week, he was named the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season.

The senior guard averaged 26.5 points per game while shooting 58.1 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and making 13 of 16 free throws in a pair of SLIAC wins over Fontbonne and Spalding.

First, he led the Red Devils to a 98-83 victory over Fontbonne with a 33-point performance on 11-of-19 shooting while knocking down three triples, gathering six rebounds, distributing four assists and recorded a career-high four blocks.

Then, on Saturday, he contributed 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 20 minutes of play during EC's 82-61 win at Spalding.

This is EC's fourth Player of the Week honor of this season, and Bennington's sixth time in the past two years.

Heading into the second-to-last game of the regular season, Bennington is the league's leading scorer with 24.7 points per game while shooting 53.1 percent from the floor, 38.8 percent from 3-point range and 78.9 percent from the free-throw line. He's also producing 6.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

On Wednesday, the Red Devils (15-8, 10-6) will look to move closer to locking up a spot in the SLIAC Tournament when they take on league leader Webster (15-8, 14-2) on the road at 7:30 p.m.