Both Mississippi State basketball teams were featured in the latest Southeastern Conference weekly honors, with Jimmy Bell Jr. earning his first player of the week accolade for the men and Lauren Park-Lane doing the same for the women.
Bell Jr. put up 17 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to a 70-60 win over Rutgers in Newark, N.J. on Saturday, becoming the first SEC player this season to have a game with at least 15 of each. He leads the conference with 9.4 rebounds per game, especially impressive considering MSU brought him in to back up Tolu Smith and he is only starting due to Smith’s injury.
The Bulldogs have had at least one player named conference player of the week in each of the last nine seasons. Smith won the award twice last year.
“I can’t imagine where we’d be without his production,” head coach Chris Jans said following the victory over the Scarlet Knights. “Jimmy came in knowing that Tolu was coming back. He had a lot of confidence in himself. Certainly, no one could have predicted that he would be in this position with playing a bigger role and more minutes than he’s used to. He’s really gotten himself in really good shape.”
Park-Lane set a program record — women or men — with 10 made 3-pointers in MSU’s 82-75 win at Colorado State last Wednesday, finishing with 33 points to go along with six assists. She scored 12 of her points in the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs rallied from an eight-point deficit for their fourth straight victory.
It marked the second consecutive week that MSU has had a player selected for the honor, with Jessika Carter earning SEC Co-Player of the Week for Dec. 11-17. The last time the Bulldogs had back-to-back player of the week honors was during the 2018-19 season, when Teaira McCowan won the award two weeks in a row.
McCowan and Anriel Howard won it in back-to-back weeks earlier that same season, marking the last time MSU has had two different players honored consecutively.
“It is unbelievable. (Park-Lane) is so special,” head coach Sam Purcell said after the win over the Rams. “If you aren’t talking about Lauren Park-Lane across the country, you are missing out. I am always saying talk to us nice, but they better be talking nice about Lauren Park-Lane because this is a special player who came here and made sacrifices. I could not be a more proud coach.”
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