Luster earns first career Heart Player of the Week after pair of Pride wins

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Getting back to on a winning track last week, Clarke University men's basketball received their first individual honor of the 2023-24 season as junior guard Biggie Luster earned the Heart of America Athletic Conference's Player of the Week honor, Heart officials announced Monday.

This is the first career Player of the Week honor for Luster and first for the Pride men's basketball program in almost exactly a calendar year when Jacob Fierst last did so on Nov. 14, 2022 last season as Luster helped lead the Pride to a 83-75 non-conference win over St. Ambrose University last Wednesday and opened Heart play with a 98-90 win over William Penn University on Saturday evening.

Finishing with a double-double against the Fighting Bees, Luster grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds while finishing second on the team in scoring with 18 in 37 minutes played while adding three assists, a steal, and a block. Against the Statesmen, Luster may have one-upped himself even though he didn't match the double-double, he scored 25 points, three short of his career-high, to lead all scorers while adding nine rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocked shots playing all but one minute in the game.

The Rockford, Ill. native is currently tied for the team lead in scoring at 15.8 point per game while averaging 9.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 2.6 steals per game to lead the team in those stat categories at a team-high 35.8 minutes per game.

With their two wins last week, the Pride are now 3-2 on the season and the lone team at 1-0 in the Heart with their Saturday matchup against WPU opening the conference slate as CU will continue with a pair of Heart matchups this week, first against RV Central Methodist on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. CT in the Kehl Center.