Walker Claims First Weekly Honor

An injured Blake Walker overcame an injured ankle to lead his team over Viterbo.

Oskaloosa–Blake Walker (Sr., Rose Garden, Physical Education) has had a tremendous collegiate career, but it took an injured performance for him to receive his first weekly recognition as he was named Midwest Collegiate Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week Monday.

Walker garnered his first award after leading the Statesmen (19-9, 9-3 MCC) to two wins last week which secured the #2 seed for this week’s MCC Tournament.

The senior averaged 16.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 6.0 assists as WPU defeated Viterbo and Grand View. What makes all of that so impressive is the fact that a little more than 24 hours prior to the Viterbo contest, Walker suffered an injury at the start of practice and was questionable to even play Wednesday. He was scratched from the starting lineup for only the fourth time in his 126-game career, but entered soon thereafter and had a tremendous outing.

Walker nearly posted a triple-double versus the V-Hawks with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. He added another all-around strong performance against Grand View with 11 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. The wide variety of high numbers should not be surprising from the only player in program history to have tallied more than 1,000 points (currently 1,373), 700 rebounds (748), and 500 assists (594). He is the school’s all-time leader in assists.

For the year, Walker is averaging 11.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 6.2 assists in addition to 17 steals and 13 blocks. He has reached double figures 16 times this year, highlighted by a 38-point showing against Graceland on November 8.

It is the fifth award for William Penn this year.