PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley senior guard Will Franklin (Houston, Texas/Alief Hastings H.S.) has been named the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball Player of the Week, according to an announcement from the league office this afternoon.
Franklin averaged 19.5 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals in Bradley's two games last week, helping the Braves (9-3) to home wins versus Loyola-Chicago (82-73) and Southern Miss (83-73). Franklin becomes the fourth Brave to receive a weekly Valley honor this season, joining previous Players of the Week Jeremy Crouch (Nov. 13) and Zach Andrews (Nov. 20), as well as Newcomer of the Week Matt Salley (Dec. 18).
In last Tuesday's win against Loyola, Franklin drained a career-best five 3-pointers (in six attempts) to highlight his 17-point effort. He added four rebounds, three assists and three steals against the Ramblers. He came back with five more treys in Saturday's win against Southern Miss, scoring 22 points and adding five assists, three steals and two rebounds. Franklin made 10-of-15 treys in the two games last week, upping his season percentage to 50.0 (33-66). For the season, Franklin is Bradley's second-leading scorer at 14.6 points per game. He also ranks second by averaging 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals per contest.
Aided by Franklin's play, Bradley has won four straight games heading into Wednesday's Valley opener at Northern Iowa (8:05 p.m., ESPN2). Following the game at UNI, Bradley will try to extend their 14-game home winning streak Saturday (7:05 p.m.) against Evansville at Carver Arena.
