SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Mercer junior guard Ross Cummings has been named the Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for all contests Feb. 19-25. The award is selected by the league office.

Cummings averaged 30.0 points and 4.0 rebounds on the week as the Bears downed Samford and Chattanooga at home to move into a tie for sixth in the league standings.

The Dickson, Tennessee, native scored 23 points and pulled down six rebounds in Mercer’s 65-62 win over Samford on Thursday. He followed that up with a career-high 37 points in a 74-69 win over Chattanooga on Saturday, scoring 26 of them in the second half. Cummings was 8-for-14 from 3-point range in the contest and fell just two points shy of the Hawkins Arena scoring record.

Cummings has now scored in double figures 25 times this season and is fourth in the SoCon with an average of 17.9 per game. In league contests, that average jumps to 20.7 points per game, good for third in the league.

Mercer (11-17, 6-10 SoCon) closes the regular season at VMI (8-20, 2-14) on Thursday and at home against UNCG (24-5, 13-3) on Saturday as it vies for one of the top six seeds in the upcoming Ingles SoCon Basketball Championship presented by General Shale.

Other nominees: Lew Stallworth (The Citadel), Bo Hodges (ETSU), Isaiah Miller (UNCG), Josh Sharkey (Samford), David Jean-Baptiste (Chattanooga), Bubba Parham (VMI), Carlos Dotson (Western Carolina) and Cameron Jackson (Wofford).

2018-19 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Players of the Week
Nov. 13 Josh Sharkey, Samford
Nov. 20 Jordan Lyons, Furman
Nov. 27 Lew Stallworth, The Citadel
Dec. 4 Lew Stallworth, The Citadel
Dec. 11 Jeromy Rodriguez, ETSU
Dec. 18 Matt Rafferty, Furman
Dec. 24 Francis Alonso, UNCG
Dec. 31 Jeromy Rodriguez, ETSU
Jan. 8 Matt Rafferty, Furman
Jan. 15 Ross Cummings, Mercer
Jan. 22 Kevin Easley, Chattanooga
Jan. 29 Patrick Good, ETSU
Feb. 5 Onno Steger, Western Carolina
Feb. 12 Fletcher Magee, Wofford
Feb. 19 Matt Rafferty, Furman
Feb. 26 Ross Cummings, Mercer

-www.SoConSports.com-