Arizona forward Deandre Ayton picked up his second Pac-12 Player of the Week award Tuesday after leading the Wildcats to an 84-78 win over ASU on Saturday.
Ayton had 23 points, 19 rebounds, three blocks and three assists to six turnovers against the Sun Devils. His 19 rebounds were the most for a UA player since Bob Elliott had 19 in a game during the 1973-74 season.
After also winning the award on Dec. 4, following a 28-point, 10-rebound performance at UNLV, Ayton became only the eighth freshman to win the award in multiple weeks.
Three freshmen did it last season -- UCLA's Lonzo Ball, UCLA's T.J. Leaf and Arizona's Lauri Markkanen, while UA's Stanley Johnson won it twice in 2014-15, UCLA's Kevin Love did it three times in 2007-08, Cal's Shareef Abdur-Rahim won two in 1995-96 and USC's Harold Miner did it in 1989-90.
Among others, Ayton beat out Utah's Justin Bibbins, USC's Bennie Boatwright and UCLA's Aaron Holiday to win the award.
Bibbins, a grad transfer from Long Beach State, scored a combined 37 points while shooting 54 percent in the Utes' first-ever sweep at Oregon and OSU. He had eight assists to only one turnover.
Boatwright scored 33 points to lead the Trojans over New Mexico State in the final of the Diamond Head Classic championship on Christmas Day while shooting a combined 58.1 percent for the week, between the Diamond Head final and home games against the Washington schools.
Holiday averaged 23.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in UCLA's home wins over Washington State and Washington.
