DES MOINES – Iowa Wesleyan College swept the Midwest Collegiate Conference’s Player of the Week awards for basketball as Heather Larson (Jr.-Canton, Ill.) and Brett Humpal (Sr.-Decorah, Iowa) were announced Tuesday as the league’s award winners for the past week.
Larson was named the league’s Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the second time this season after averaging 18 points in the Tigers’ dominating home wins over Grand View University and Viterbo (Wis.) University last week. The sharpshooter made 13 of her 18 shots over the two games (72.2%), including eight of 13 three-point tries (61.5%). She also averaged 3.5 rebounds and two steals a game as IWC remained in first place in the MCC standings.
Larson has especially stepped up over the Tigers’ past nine games, in which the team has an 8-1 record with only an overtime loss at Mount Mercy College. The junior college transfer has scored 15.2 points per game and pulled down 4.9 rebounds per game over the nine games in which she is shooting 62.7% from the field, including 56.9% from three-point range.
For the season Larson is leading the Tigers in scoring at 11.9 points per game and is ranked eighth nationally in NAIA Division II in three-point percentage (46.2%). As a team IWC is in a three-way fight for the conference regular season title and the top seed and home court advantage in the MCC postseason tourney. The Tigers are ½ game ahead of Mount Mercy and one game ahead of Grand View, with Wesleyan playing one game this week and the latter two teams playing twice this week, including a head-to-head meeting Wednesday night at Grand View.
Humpal received his fifth Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honor this season and 11th of his career after averaging 20 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and 3.5 steals in IWC’s two games last week. Wesleyan finished 1-1 last week, losing a tough 62-59 decision to league-leading Grand View before coming back for a 74-68 win over Viterbo on Saturday.
Humpal had 26 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals in the win over the V-Hawks and moved into fifth on IWC’s all-time scoring list. He now has 1,655 points in his stellar career after surpassing Doug Ferguson (1964-68), who scored 1,649 points as a Tiger.
Humpal continues to lead the MCC in scoring at 19.6 points per game and is second in assists (4.5 apg) and steals (2.8 spg) and third in rebounding (8.3 rpg) in the conference. The Wesleyan men continue to be tied for second in the conference at 12-3 in league play (16-10 overall) and can clinch the second seed in the MCC tourney with a win on Saturday or a loss by William Penn University in either of the Statesmen’s final two games.
Both IWC basketball teams have one game left in their regular seasons, against Waldorf College on Saturday in Forest City. The Tigers then will begin MCC Tournament play, with the men opening at home Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. and the women opening at home the next night at the same time, 7 p.m.
For more information regarding the IWC basketball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
