It was a great week of basketball in Bowling Green as WKU graduate guard Camron Justice and senior guard Meral Abdelgawad were both named Conference USA Players of the Week on Monday for the men and women’s programs respectively.  

Abdelgawad led the Lady Toppers to two huge comeback wins on the road. She averaged an impressive 26.5 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. 

In her first game of the week at Miami (Ohio), Abdelgawad accumulated 20 points, eight rebounds, three steals and one assist, all while shooting an impressive 8-for-15 from the field. She scored 14 of her 20 points in the second half. 

The senior guard made a game-tying layup with only 28 seconds left in the game, then proceeded to make a pair of free throws to give WKU a two-point lead with 21 seconds remaining. The Lady Toppers went on to win by two on a buzzer-beater by freshman guard Mya Meredith.

Two days after her outstanding performance against Miami, Abdelgawad had an even better performance at Fairleigh Dickinson. She tied a career-high, scoring 33 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a steal. 25 of her points came in the fourth quarter and the two overtime periods. 

Abdelgawad scored the Lady Toppers’ final five points to give them a four point victory over Fairleigh Dickinson in double overtime on Friday night. 

This is Abdelgawad’s first career C-USA player of the week award. She currently leads all of C-USA with 18.2 points-per-game. The senior is also third in C-USA in rebounds (92) and in steals (28). 

Justice was named the men’s C-USA player of the week after leading the Hilltoppers to wins over Centre College and Louisville. Over the two wins, the graduate student averaged 17.5 points, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals. 

In the Hilltoppers’ first game of the week, Justice scored ten points to go along with six assists and three steals against Centre in limited minutes in a 90-52 blowout win. 

Justice put on a show against Louisville on Saturday at Diddle Arena. Justice led WKU to its first victory over Louisville in nine games and its first victory over the Cardinals at home. He led all scorers with 25 points to go along with three rebounds, three assists and two steals. Justice did all this while shooting an outstanding 7-for-12 from the field and 5-for-7 from three-point land. 

This is Justice’s first career C-USA player of the week award in his second stint on the Hill after spending last season as a graduate assistant. 

The Hilltoppers will square off against Austin Peay on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT. The Lady Toppers’ next game against Belmont on Wednesday was canceled, so their next scheduled game will be their first C-USA game against Southern Mississippi on Dec. 30.