D.Z. Does It: Zitani Selected For NWC Men's Basketball Weekly Honor
FOREST GROVE – A trio of double-digit scoring performances on the opening weekend of the season for Pacific's
Daniel Zitani (Sr., Oakland, Calif.) has earned the forward selection as the Northwest Conference Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week. The award, as selected by the conference's sports information directors, was announced on Monday.
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Zitani finished the Boxers' three-game Southern California road trip with 62 points and 25 rebounds. He connected on 63.2 percent of his shots from the field and went 14 of 20 from the free throw line.
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"Obviously our league as a whole is very good as evidenced by how well our teams did this past weekend, so for Daniel to receive this award is a testament to his play," said Pacific Head Coach
Tim Cleary. "He has earned the success he is having to this point of the season. He sacrificed immensely throughout the off-season and has worked as hard on his game as any player I have coached. He has also really developed and matured as a person, which has definitely enhanced his play on the floor.Â
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"The challenge for him going forward will by to maintain his level of play as teams begin to scheme to slow him down," Cleary added. "I am confident that he will be able to adjust."
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Zitani opened the weekend by scoring a Pacific career-high 28 points against La Verne on Friday, connecting on 10 of 13 from the field and 8 of 11 from the free throw line to go along with six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. He added his first double-double of the season in Saturday's victory over Caltech, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes of action.
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In Sunday's finale at La Sierra, Zitani led the Boxers with 18 points to go along with nine rebounds and a block.
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Zitani enters the 2013-14 season as the Boxers' top returning scorer. He averaged 6.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game while playing in all 25 games and starting nine.Â
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Pacific makes their home debut on Friday night against another Southern California team as they host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Tipoff at the Stoller Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. A live video webcast will be available at GoBoxers.com.
