Men’s Basketball: UL’s Shepherd earns weekly state honor

Sports Brief, Daily Advertiser, Dec. 10, 2013

UL’s Shepherd earns weekly state honor

The UL Ragin’ Cajuns had the repeat winner as a school on the men’s side of the Player of the Week honors Monday as announced by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, but this time it was sophomore in Kasey Shepherd.

Meanwhile, ULM’s Ashleigh Simmons, who shared Player of the Month honors last week, earned women’s Player of the Week honors by herself this time.

Shepherd had the best offensive week of his young Cajuns career, averaging 20.0 points and 5.5 rebounds, shooting .650 from the field (13-20), .545 from three-point (6-11) and a perfect 8-for-8 from the line in a pair of tough road games.

He scored a career-high 22 points, going 8-for-10 from the field with a pair of three-pointers and six rebounds to help the Cajuns snap Louisiana Tech’s 19-game home win streak with an 89-80 win. It was UL’s first win at La. Tech since 1995, snapping an eight-game losing streak.

Shepherd came back on Saturday to score 18 points off the bench, going five-for-10 from the field (.500), making four three-pointers in eight attempts, at No. 6 Louisville. He came into the week averaging 4.6 points in seven games.

Simmons recorded her third straight double double (22 points, 11 rebounds) as she helped the Warhawks even their season record at 3-3 with an 85-83 win over Stephen F. Austin on Sunday afternoon.