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Gonzaga Basketball

Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura one of 10 candidates for Julius Erving Award

Gonzaga forward Rui Hachimura steals the ball from San Diego guard Isaiah Wright last Saturday. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Meehan jimm@spokesman.com(509) 459-5585

Gonzaga junior Rui Hachimura has been named one of 10 candidates for the Julius Erving Award, presented to the small forward of the year.

Hachimura, named a finalist for the Wooden Award player of the year earlier this week, leads the Zags at 20.4 points per game. He’s second in rebounding at 6.3 rebounds. He’s made 60.6 percent of his shots, including 11 of 24 3-pointers (45.8 percent).

Hachimura has 21 steals and 17 blocked shots. He scored a career-high 33 points against Idaho State in the season opener and had 32 in last Saturday’s victory over San Diego.

Hachimura is joined on the list of 10 by Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle and Stanford’s KZ Okpala from the Pac-12 Conference. The list will be trimmed to five in March.

Villanova’s Mikal Bridges won the Erving Award last season.