Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Monday after leading the Wildcats to a double-overtime win at Washington State that capped their three-win week.
However, Oregon's Chris Duarte beat out Arizona's Terrell Brown in voting for the Pac-12 Player of the Week award.
Mathurin and Washington State's Andrej Jakimovski were the only nominees for the Freshman of the Week award, and Mathurin was more productive in the head-to-head matchup.
Mathurin had 24 points, making 8 of 12 shots, and 11 rebounds while sealing the Wildcats' win with two free throws with nine seconds left in the second overtime. Jakimovski had 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting and eight rebounds.
While Jakimovski played only one game due to ASU's COVID-related postponement of its two Washington games, Mathurin averaged 12.3 points and 5.7 rebounds for the week but scoreless and without a rebound while playing only 12 minutes in UA's win over Colorado on Dec. 28.
Duarte won the POW award after averaging 21.0 points while shooting 50% and collecting 4.5 rebounds in the Ducks' two home wins over California and Stanford.
Brown averaged 12.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 53.3% in the Wildcats' three wins. He hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 13 seconds left in the second overtime at WSU and his 10 assists for the week were matched with only two turnovers, both at Pullman.
