By Matt Noonan (@MattNoonan11) at @NoontimeSports

Noontime Sports Link:  http://noontimesports.com/2016/01/12/mass-college-hoops-wacba-honor-roll-week-seven-3/

WORCESTER, Mass. – With another week of college basketball in the books, it is time to unveil this week’s Worcester Area College Basketball Association (WACBA) honor roll, including our players and rookies of the week.

Men’s Player of the Week: Karl Charles (Fr.), Holy Cross (Piscataway, N.J.): Charles the team with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals in the victory over Colgate. Charles set new career highs for points, rebounds and blocks against Colgate, while tying his career high for assists. He added 12 points and three rebounds at Bucknell and hit 57.1 percent of his shots, 57.1 percent of his three-pointers and 86.7 percent of his free throws on the week.

Men’s Rookie of the Week: Alex Santos (Fr.), Worcester State (Lawrence, Mass.): Santos averaged 16.5 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.0 rebounds in a 1-1 week for the Lancers. Santos scored 12 points and tallied up five assists in the 77-61 victory over MCLA. He then netted a team-high 21 points in the 94-83 loss to Salem State. This week, Santos went a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line and shot 38.9% from behind the 3-point line.

Women’s Player of the Week: Ama Biney (So.), WPI (Worcester, Mass.): Biney continued her strong season by averaging 12.5 points and totaling 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a pair of blocks during a 2-0 week for the 13-1 Engineers. The sophomore posted game-bests of 14 points and eight rebounds as the Crimson and Gray defeated Wellesley 67-35. On Saturday, Biney paced WPI with 11 points and six rebounds as the Engineers rallied from a double-digit second half deficit to defeat visiting Wheaton 56-46. In the comeback the guard netted the game-tying basketball as WPI pushed its winning streak to 11 games.

Women’s Rookie of the Week: Morgan O’Donnell (Fr.), Assumption (Easton, Mass): O’Donnell averaged 12 points, 4.5 rebounds and two steals per game as she shot 66.7 percent from the field. Highlighting her week was a 21-point, seven-rebound effort vs. Le Moyne as she was 7-for-10 from the field in the game.

Honor Roll:

Molly Hourigan (So.), Holy Cross (Memphis, N.Y.): Hourigan had a strong week defensively for Holy Cross in helping the Crusaders go 1-1. She began the week with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting at Colgate to go along with seven rebounds and eight blocked shots – the eight blocks tied her career-high and are the third-most by a Crusader in Holy Cross single-game history. Against Bucknell on Saturday, Hourigan posted seven points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

Tre Owens (Sr.), Assumption (Rota, Spain): Owens averaged 17 points, three rebounds and one steal per game in a 1-1 week for the Hounds. He also shot 52 percent from the field 46.7 percent from three (7-for-15) and highlighted his week with a 21-point effort in a home win over Le Moyne.

Declan Soukup (Jr.), Assumption (Melbourne, Australia): Soukup averaged 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and three assists per game in a 1-1 week as he shot 56.3 percent from the field. He also shot 55.6 percent from three, was 8-for-9 at the free throw line and tallied 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field in a home win over Le Moyne.

Patrick Bradanese (Sr.), Anna Maria (Billerica, Mass.): Bradanese averaged 21.7 points, 6.7 assists and 6.3 rebounds in a 1-2 week for the AMCATS. He scored a week-high 26 points in the AMCATS’ 92-87 win against Emmanuel on Thursday before dishing out a season-best nine assists in a four-point loss at Lasell on Saturday. Bradanese shot 42.0 percent from the floor and 81 percent from the free-throw line this week.

Kwame Lee (Sr.), Fitchburg State (Brockton, Mass.): Registered a team-best 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field to go along with three rebounds, one steal and one block in an 88-67 win over Westfield State University on Wednesday evening.

Bilal Shakir (Jr.), Worcester State (Worcester, Mass.): Shakir averaged 17.5 points, 5.0 assists, and 3.0 steals in a 1-1 week for the Lancers. Shakir netted a game-high 21 points in the 77-61 win over MCLA on Wednesday. He then registered 14 points, five assists, four rebounds, and three steal in the 94-83 setback to Salem State on Saturday. Overall this week, Shakir shot 46.7 percent from the field and 37.5 from behind the 3-point arc.

Kaitlyn Berkel (Fr.), Worcester State (Waterford, Conn.): Berkel averaged 11.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks and assists in a 2-1 week for the Lancers. Berkel registered a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds in the loss to Suffolk on Monday. She then was one rebound shy of a double-double in Wednesday’s MASCAC opener against MCLA, netting 11 points and nine rebounds with the addition of three assists and two steals. In Saturday’s setback to Salem State, she recorded 11 points and 11 rebounds. Overall, Berkel shot 34.4 percent from the field and 66.7 from the line.

Ian Converse (Jr.), WPI (Woodstock, Conn.): Converse missed averaging a double-double by a single rebound as nationally-ranked WPI defeated Springfield and MIT during the opening week of NEWMAC play.  The junior netted a career-high-equaling 19 points and was one off his career-best rebounding total with 14, including eight offensive caroms in the Crimson and Gray’s 70-62 triumph Saturday over MIT.  Converse, who shot 58.8% for the week and added three assists and three steals in the wins, began the week by stuffing the stat sheet with six points and five rebounds in a 69-56 road win at Springfield.

Noontime Sports (and NoontimeSports.com) will once again be the home to WACBA this winter, and will post the weekly awards every Tuesday morning. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@NoontimeSports and @NoonSportsBlog), while also keeping up with WACBA (@WACBAHoops) for up-to-date news, notes, scores and more.