Two dominating performances by Nick Faust (Baltimore, Md./Maryland) led Long Beach State to a pair of impressive conference road wins and netted the senior his second Big West Men’s Basketball Player of the Week award this season.
Faust dropped a career-high 34 points on UC Santa Barbara in an 80-70 overtime win on Thursday, helping the Beach overcome a 15-point second half deficit. He became the fifth player under head coach Dan Monson to record at least 30 in a game, hitting 12 of 25 floor shots, including a trio of three-pointers. He also made all but one of his eight free throw attempts, while adding eight rebounds, three assists and a steal to the stat line.
The 6-6 guard then helped the Beach topple previous Big West unbeaten Hawai‘i in front of a sellout crowd in Honolulu. He delivered 28 points, his sixth 20-point effort this season, draining five three-pointers and making 10 of his 16 shots overall. LBSU joined No. 1 Oklahoma as the only two teams to beat UH at the Stan Sheriff Center this season.
In fact, Faust recorded a double-double in the first half alone, finishing the game with a career-best 14 boards as LBSU won 78-64. He added three steals. Faust shot 53.7 percent (22-of-41) from the field while averaging 31.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and two steals in the two victories.
Others nominated: David Nwaba (Cal Poly); Aaron Parks (CSUN); Josh Fox (UC Davis); Luke Nelson (UC Irvine); Taylor Johns (UC Riverside); Michael Bryson (UC Santa Barbara); Mike Thomas (Hawai‘i)