PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - Wilmington University men's basketball senior Isiah Mason was honored as the Sam Cozen Small College Player of the Week by the Philadelphia Area Small College Coaches Association at its luncheon on Tuesday, January 22 at the University of the Sciences.
Now in its 26th season, the Philadelphia Area Small College Coaches Association honors area small college basketball players at their bi-weekly luncheons, not only for the performance on the court, but for their leadership and academic success, ideals emphasized by the late Sam Cozen, longtime coach at Drexel University and for whom the award is named.
Mason (Philadelphia, Pa./Cardinal Dougherty) is the first off the bench for the Wildcats, scoring 9.2 points per game in only 26.9 minutes per game. Among the guards, Mason leads the squad in field goal percentage, hitting on .421 (51-of-121) of his shots from the floor. He is also among the highest ranked on the team from beyond the three-point arc, shooting a deadly 14-of-37 (37.8 percent) from downtown.
During the two week stretch for which Mason was honored as the Sam Cozen Small College Player of the Week, Mason averaged nine points a game, but led the Wildcats with 16 points off the bench against cross-town rival Goldey-Beacom on January 8. His 16 points allowed the Wildcats to come away with a 69-60 road victory to secure the team's first regular season sweep over the Lightning since joining the NCAA ranks in 2004-05.
The Wildcats followed that Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victory up with another CACC win against the University of the Sciences on January 12. Mason was unfamiliarly off the mark, shooting only 2-for-10 from the floor, but hit 4-of-4 from the foul line, including a pair with less than 30 seconds left in regulation to secure the victory. Wilmington dropped its next two contests on the road, with Mason scoring three points at NYIT and nine points at Holy Family last Saturday.
It is the first such award for Mason in his career, and the first Wildcat to earn the award since former teammate Corye Payton was honored on January 31, 2012.
The sports management major will lead the Wildcats in three games over the next week and a half, first heading to Concordia on Saturday before hosting Holy Family and Nyack next week.