WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Chris Faidley, a sharpshooting guard on the Whitman College men's basketball team, has has been named Northwest Conference Player of the Week for the second time in his college career.
Faidley, a 6-foot-2 junior guard from Shoreline, Wash., made 10 of 18 3-point shots and scored 51 points as Whitman split a pair of games last week at the Caltech/Cal Lutheran Classic in Pasadena, Calif. He also averaged 5.0 assists and 4.0 assists while playing all but one minute of the two games.
Faidley, a team captain, drilled his first six 3-pointers and scored 22 first-half points in Whitman's 71-53 victory over the University of California-Santa Cruz. He finished with 31 points, two points off his career high, which came earlier this month in a season-opening game against Evergreen State.
Through his first three games, Faidley is averaging 28.0 points and 5.0 3-point baskets per game, numbers that top the early season Northwest Conference statistical charts. He is shooting 53.6 percent from the 3-point line and an even 50 percent from the floor.
A year ago as a sophomore, Faidley made 91 3-point baskets in 25 games. That number led the NWC and set a new single-season school record at Whitman. He finished his sophomore season with a 16.9-point scoring average, which ranked him third in the NWC scoring race.
Faidley, who played his prep ball at King's High School in Seattle, picked up his first NWC Player of the Week award last February, after making 16 of 25 3-point shots and scoring 52 points in a pair of road games.
Whitman, which opened the season with close road losses to Evergreen State and Cal Lutheran, takes a 1-2 record into its home opener, set for this Saturday against the University of Great Falls. That game starts at 6 p.m. in Sherwood Center.