LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — UNLV men's basketball senior Mbacke Diong was named the Raising Cane's Outstanding Rebel of the Week, the school announced Wednesday.
The award goes to the student-athlete who turned in the best individual performance during the previous week of competition from Monday through Sunday as voted on by the UNLV Athletics' Strategic Communications department.
Diong, a 6-11 forward from Dakar, Senegal, led the Runnin’ Rebels to wins in their two home contests versus Saint Katherine and New Mexico with team highs of 19.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. In addition, the Scarlet and Gray’s big man finished with an efficient 78 percent shooting clip (18 of 23) in those outings.
Against Saint Katherine, Diong scored a game-high 18 points on 9 of 12 from the floor and grabbed 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the year in just 22 minutes of action. In the Mountain West series opener versus UNM, Diong scored a career-high 20 points on 9 of 11 from the field, with six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot in 31 minutes on the court.
