Williamsburg, KY - UC's final week of home contests was capped off with Steven Fitzgerald winning his second MSC Player of the Year Award, announced the conference Monday. This marks the third time Fitzgerald had won the award in his career. 

Fitzgerald began his solid week of play against Pikeville in a 72-57 win for the Patriots. The junior finished with a respectable 12 points on the night with his presence being felt the most of the boards. Fitzgerald ended up grabbing 13 rebounds against the Bears to set a new career-high, besting his previous high of 10 set against Cumberland earlier in the season. 

He added another double-double to his weekly ledger against the Phoenix on Thursday when he scored a team-high 17 points, while grabbing 10 rebounds in the win. Fitzgerald played a major role against Cumberland late thanks to his free throw shooting as he was 5-6 from the charity stripe in the game helping UC pull out an overtime win. 

The Somerset, KY native closed out week with a 17-point effort in the win over Lindsey Wilson on Saturday. He fell one rebound short of another double-double which would have been the first time in Fitzgerald's career that he would have had three double-doubles in one week. Free throws were once again a strong suit for Fitzgerald, going 5-6 from the charts stripe against the Blue Raiders. 

"Steven has been a major catalyst in our success of late," said Head Coach Matt Daniel "His leadership along with the way he has played has been tremendous." 

The end of the 2021-22 regular season is beginning to draw to a close with Fitzgerald currently sitting in fourth in total points (485) in the conference and fifth in points per game (17.3). The junior guard has been making an offensive impact from all over the floor as he ranks in the top five in the MSC in total made field goals, three-pointers, and free throws. He has also made major contributions in rebounding this season with the third most total rebounds of anyone in the conference (196) while averaging 7.0 boards per game. 

Fitzgerald and the Patriots enter the new week on their longest win streak of the season at five. They'll look to extend that out even further on Thursday, February 17th, when they travel to McKenzie, TN to take on Bethel University before ending their regular season at Freed-Hardeman on Saturday. 

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