2:03pm | Senior Casper Ware has been named the Big West Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week after leading Long Beach State to a pair of wins at Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara last week. The conference player of the week award is his third of the season, the fifth of his career and the sixth in 11 weeks for a 49er this season.
 
Ware (Cerritos, Calif./Gahr HS) averaged 22 points, four assists and 2.5 rebounds per game, while making 63.6 percent (14-of-22) of his shots and 69.2 percent (9-of-13) of his 3-pointers. Ware scored a career-high 29 points, 22 in the second half, at Cal Poly on Thursday leading LBSU to a 78-69 come-from-behind win. The 49er point guard scored 14 points and handed out five assists in Long Beach State’s 71-48 win at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. Ware held UCSB’s James Nunnally, the Big West’s fifth leading scorer, to five points (over 10 below his 16.1 points per game average) on just 1-of-7 shooting.
 
Ware’s first Big West Conference weekly honor this season came after he averaged 27 points, six assists and three rebounds in leading Long Beach State to a win over No. 9 Pittsburgh and an overtime loss at San Diego State during the second week of the season. His second came after he averaged 22.5 points, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game while shooting 43.8 percent from 3-point range in road games at Kansas and North Carolina. Ware scored a then career-high 29 points, including 21 of LBSU’s 45 first-half points, on 12-of-24 shooting at North Carolina, while handing out five assists. He finished with 16 points and four steals at Kansas
 
Ware’s first career player of the week award came on Dec. 21, 2009, after he led LBSU to a 75-62 win over Utah State while scoring 19 points and dishing out seven assists. His second honor came on Feb. 14, 2011, when he earned the recognition after averaging 22.5 points per game in a pair of Big West Conference road wins at UC Davis and Cal State Northridge.
 
Current Long Beach State players have won 16 career Big West Player of the Week honors with Larry Anderson leading the way with six, T.J. Robinson adding four, and Eugene Phelps one. Their six player of the week honors this season is already one more than last season’s total.