INDIANAPOLIS – The playoff hunt and regular season is coming down to the wire as Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week honors were awarded on Monday.
Five teams have officially clinched postseason bids for the Great Midwest Championship bracket, including two more over the weekend.
Cedarville and Ohio Dominican were the latest to guarantee a spot in the eight-team bracket and three playoff seeds are left with a handful of teams vying for their championship berths.
Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week
Hasan Varence
Ohio Dominican
Forward
RS Junior
Queens, NY (Columbus Linden McKinley HS)
As the defending conference tournament champions, Varence and his teammates know what it takes to get to the top and cut down the nets.
Varence seems to ramp up his level of play each week and with the Panthers officially qualifying for the Great Midwest Championship bracket, his past two games were no exception in a pair of ODU victories.
The springy forward produced consecutive double-doubles while averaging 23.5 points and 14.5 rebounds per game while shooting almost 60 percent on his shot attempts. His prowess from deep was also on display with five made threes.
Already having been named USBWA National Player of the Week earlier this season, Varence has put up big numbers on a consistent basis.
On Thursday, he scored 21 points and corralled 18 rebounds against Alderson Broaddus. Varence played 35 minutes and was 8-of-14 from the field to control the paint.
In 10 minutes less on Saturday, ODU went over the century mark scoring as a team in a rout against Davis & Elkins. Varence scored 26 points and pulled down 11 boards, numbers that foreseeably could have been higher if the final outcome was a little closer.
Eleven of his 18 rebounds were on the offensive glass. On the season, he has continued to maintain his pace of averaging a double-double. Varence is the league leader in rebounding and is ninth in scoring. His 12 double-doubles is also tops in the Great Midwest.