Donovan Dent and JT Toppin Earn Mountain West Weekly Honors

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The New Mexico Lobos swept this week’s Mountain West men’s basketball weekly awards, the conference announced Monday. Donovan Dent was named the conference’s player of the week, while JT Toppin was named the freshman of the week.

Dent’s player of the week honor is the first of his career and the first by a Lobo this season, while Toppin earned his third freshman of the week honor this year, teaming with Tru Washington for four straight freshman of the week honors for New Mexico.

Dent and Toppin helped lead the Lobos (9-1) to a pair of wins last week, running their win streak to eight. The duo lifted UNM to an 84-61 win over Big West preseason favorite UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday at The Pit and a 93-76 win over Santa Clara on Saturday in the Jack Jones Classic in Las Vegas.

Last week, Dent posted consecutive 20-point games for the first time in his career, scoring 23 points vs. UC Santa Barbara and 22 points against Santa Clara. He had eight assists in the UCSB game, while the Santa Clara game saw him tie career highs with six rebounds and three steals.

Toppin earned his third award of the season after averaging 14.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 76% (13-17) from the floor. Against UCSB he had 18 points on 8-9 FGs, including making his first two 3-pointers of the season. In the win over Santa Clara, Toppin had 11 points and six rebounds.

New Mexico returns to action on Friday as it visits New Mexico State for the second meeting of the Rio Grande Rivalry this season. The Lobos won the first matchup, 106-62, on Dec. 2 at The Pit. The rematch will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. on Friday in Las Cruces and the game will air on CBS Sports Network.