As he continues his assault on the Eastern Washington University men's basketball career scoring record, Venky Jois has been selected as this week's Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week, sharing the honor with Idaho State's Geno Luzcando.

The 6-foot-8 senior forward from Boronia, Australia, averaged 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds while making 63 percent of his shots from the field (19-of-30) and 75 percent from the free throw line (9-of-12) in EWU's home sweep versus Portland State (1/28/16) and Sacramento State (1/30/16). He also had three assists, three blocks and a steal.

He made 9-of-15 field goals and 5-of-7 free throws in EWU's 112-83 romp over Portland State, and also finished with nine rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals. He had a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds in a 74-67 win over Sacramento State in which he made 10-of-15 from the field and 4-of-5 from the charity stripe.
 
In the tight win over Sac State, Jois took over on both ends of the court after the Hornets used a 14-1 run to cut Eastern's game-high 17-point lead to four with 4:43 to play. The senior had a defensive rebound that led to his dunk with 3:52 left to bump the lead back to eight, then had a blocked shot on the next defensive possession for EWU. The 2:35 Sac State scoreless stretch was enough to give EWU some breathing room, and then EWU iced the victory by making 8-of-10 free throws in the last 1:55.
 
"We had a senior who said he would not let the team lose," said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford after the game. "He just put his head down and said, 'here is what winning is, follow me guys.' That's what you want in a leader."
 
In his last six games – including four Eagle victories – the preseason Big Sky Conference MVP is averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 points on 53-of-79 shooting (67.1 percent) from the field. He has had five double-doubles in EWU's last 10 games (six victories).
 
Now with 1,616 points in his career, Jois is only 125 points behind the school record of 1,741 held by Ron Cox (1974-77). If he equals his 16.9 scoring average the rest of the season (including one Big Sky Tournament game), Jois would finish with 1,785 and break the record at home on March 3 versus Idaho State.

Jois' school-record total of 221 blocked shots are 26 from the league record of 247 (Brian Qvale, Montana, 2008-11).  Jois has 909 rebounds to rank third in school history, and he also ranks on leaders lists for games played (110, 10th), scoring average (14.70, 10th), rebounding average (8.3, eighth), field goals attempted (1,121, third), field goals made (642, second), free throws made (328, second) and owns school records for dunks (137) and free throws attempted (584).
 
Jois is ranked a season-high third in NCAA Division I in field goal percentage (through Jan. 31), having made 67.6 percent of his shots thus far. His current mark is on pace to break the school record of 66.0 percent set by Cox in the 1976-77 season.