Gonzaga’s Drew Timme claims WCC award for third time in four weeks

The second-highest scoring performance of Drew Timme’s career helped the Gonzaga forward capture his third West Coast Conference Player of the Week honor.

Timme, who scored 35 points in the Bulldogs’ 111-88 victory over Pepperdine in the WCC opener, earned the award for the third time in four weeks.

The Richardson, Texas, native has surpassed 35 points only one other time in his career, scoring a career-high 37 last season against Texas. He also pulled down 10 rebounds in the Pepperdine win to post his fifth double-double this season.

With his total on Saturday, Timme moved past Elias Harris to become Gonzaga’s fourth all-time leading scorer. He has a good chance of leaping Adam Morrison on Thursday against San Francisco, needing only seven points to move up to No. 3.

Over Gonzaga’s last six games against Division I opponents, Timme has averaged 28.8 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists. In Wednesday’s game against NAIA Eastern Oregon, he played just 17 minutes but still scored 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting, adding seven rebounds and three assists.

On the heels of his sixth career 30-point game, Timme is now the nation’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 22.2 points per game. Among college basketball’s top-50 scorers, the Gonzaga forward is the only player averaging better than 65% from the field.

Timme has scored at least 20 points in all but five Gonzaga games this season and has shot less than 50% from the field on just one occasion. According to former ESPN statistician Jared Berson, the only other Division I player in the last five years to average more than 25 points on 70% shooting over any seven-game stretch in a season was Duke’s Zion Williamson.

Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney was named WCC Freshman of the Week, winning that award for the fourth time this season. Mahaney averaged 16.5 points in the Gaels’ WCC wins over San Diego and Santa Clara.