Bucknell's Bettencourt Earns Fourth PL Player of the Week Award of the Season

Sophomore Guard Led Red-Hot Bison to Dramatic Wins over Lehigh and Navy

Kevin Bettencourt

Feb. 16, 2004

LEWISBURG, Pa. - After providing some late heroics in two league victories for the red-hot Bucknell men's basketball team last week, sophomore guard Kevin Bettencourt (Peabody, Mass./Peabody H.S.) garnered his fourth Patriot League Player of the Week citation on Monday.

In wins over Lehigh and Navy, both of which came down the game's final play, Bettencourt totaled 32 points and nine rebounds for the Bison, who have now won five straight games and eight of their last nine.

Last Tuesday, Bettencourt logged 15 points, four rebounds and three steals against then-first-place Lehigh. His free throw with 7.6 seconds remaining provided the winning margin in Bucknell's dramatic 64-63 victory.

On Saturday at Navy, Bettencourt scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds in a narrow 54-52 win over the Midshipmen. Twice in the last three minutes Bettencourt made crucial shots that increased Bucknell's lead to four points. The latter was a 3-pointer with 1:46 remaining that answered a Navy 3-pointer and gave the Bison a 53-49 lead.

Bettencourt has won the player of the week honor a league-high four times this season, including twice in the last three weeks, and a Bucknell player has now captured the award in each of the last three weeks. The Bison (11-12, 7-3) are now all alone in third place in the Patriot League, two games behind league-leading Lafayette, which comes to Lewisburg for a key matchup on Friday evening.

With a 15.7 ppg scoring average, Bettencourt ranks second in the Patriot League to Lehigh's Austen Rowland (16.3). Bettencourt also ranks third in the league in free-throw percentage (.811), first in free-throw attempts (122), second in 3-point field goals (2.70), sixth in assists (3.04) and sixth in steals (1.61).

On Saturday, Bettencourt, who is only 23 games into his sophomore season, moved into fifth place on Bucknell's career 3-point field goal list with 127.