HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WTVA/USM Athletics) - Southern Miss senior forward Jonathan Mills garnered selection as the Conference USA men's basketball Player of the Week while Southern Miss' Jerontay Clemons takes women's basketball Freshman of the Week accolades. Both awards are based on voting from a media panel covering the 12 league schools and released Monday afternoon.
Mills, a Chicago, Ill., native, averaged 14.7 points and 8.3 rebounds while connecting on 81.0% of his shots from the field and shooting 71.4% from the free throw line. His performance helped Southern Miss to a (3-0) record and earned him Most Valuable Player honors at the Progressive Legends Classic Huntsville Sub-regional.
Mills opened the tournament with his fifth career double-double, scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting and pulling down a season-high 10 rebounds against host Sam Houston State. Against UC-Irvine, he had 14 points and seven rebounds, and then closed out the week against Liberty by scoring nine of the team's first 11 points on his way to a game-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting. He also added eight rebounds and two assists.
This is Mills' first career C-USA Player of the Week honor.
Thompson averaged a double-double with 16.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game as the women's team won the David Jones Classic. Chapman accounted for 16 points and six rebounds per game plus had 11 steals and seven assists in the team's three wins last week, including two at the Samford Thanksgiving Classic.
Clemons averaged 16.0 points and 9.5 rebounds per game to earn MVP honors in the Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic.
She scored a team-high 16 points in the opening game against Savannah State to go with five steals and four assists while shooting 50 percent. In the championship game, Clemons registered her first double-double with 16 points and a team-best 11 rebounds. The freshman also handed out four assists and had two steals.
For the season, she's averaging team-bests of 14.0 PPG and 8.3 RPG as well as shooting 41.5% from the floor.
This is the first Freshman of the Week accolade of Clemons' career.
