Cullowhee, N.C. – For the third time in as many months, Western Carolina senior guard Vonterius Woolbright was today named the Southern Conference's Men's Basketball Player of the Month for games played in January as the conference office announced its athletes of the month. Woolbright has now earned the monthly award in each of the three months in the 2023-24 basketball season.
 
Woolbright averaged a double-double in January, averaging 23.6 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. He posted double-doubles in eight of the team's nine games including two triple-double efforts. He also collected three of the five SoCon Player of the Week honors handed out in January, running his seasonal total to a WCU-record seven and moving to within one weekly award of matching former Davidson standout Steph Curry for the most in a SoCon single-season (8, 2008-09).
 
Woolbright became just the fourth WCU men's basketball player to collect monthly plaudits from the SoCon after earning the award back in November 2023. He now holds the distinction as the only Catamount in program history to earn multiple monthly honors from the league office, duplicating efforts in both December and January. Woolbright is just the 14th men's basketball player in SoCon history to be a repeat winner of the Player of the Month award that has been handed out since the 2004-05 season.
 
Woolbright is now one of just three different players to earn three or more monthly awards in the same season. He joins Wofford's Fletcher Magee who was recognized thrice in 2017-18 and Stephen Curry of Davidson who accomplished the feat twice, tallying three player of the month accolades in 2008-09 and securing a SoCon single-season record five handed out in 2007-08.
 
Now with three SoCon Player of the Month awards in his WCU career, Woolbright joins five others in conference history to have earned three or more honors in a career. Curry (2006-09) was honored a record 10 times, with Kyle Hines (2004-08) of UNCG and Wofford's Magee (2017-19) both receiving monthly plaudits five times. Jakes Stephens (2021-23) who played both at VMI and Chattanooga, earned four awards with Woolbright now matching former Appalachian State guard Donald Sims (2009-11) with three monthly awards.
 
In addition to averaging 23.6 points and 13.2 boards per game, Woolbright added 55 total assists, averaging just over six per game in January. He scored in double figures in all nine games to continue his streak of having reached double-digits every game this year.
 
Woolbright eclipsed the 20-point mark six times and twice scored over the 30-point plateau in January including a career-high 36 points against Chattanooga on the final day of the month. He recorded double-digit rebounds in all but one game in January -- reaching double figures on the glass six times just on the defensive end alone.
 
A product of Albany, Ga., Woolbright collected his second career triple-double -- and the first of his season -- with 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists in the road win at ETSU on Jan. 10. He later duplicated his triple-double effort with 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists in the home win over VMI on Jan. 27. The three triple-doubles of his career are the most by an individual in WCU's NCAA Division I history. He is one of just three players – Kevin McCullar Jr. of Kansas and Kevin Cross of Tulane – with multiple triple-doubles this year, each with two.
Also in January, Woolbright was added to the Lou Henson Award Mid-Season Watch List by CollegeInsider.com, an honor presented annually to the nation's top Division I mid-major player. He also collected his second Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week honor from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) – the only player in the Southern Conference to earn the recognition and one of just six players nationally with more than one weekly award from the organization at the time of nomination (Tommy Bruner from Denver; Boo Buie from Northwestern; RJ Davis from North Carolina; and Jordan Pope from Oregon State).
 
Woolbright enters the week leading the Southern Conference – and ranked fourth nationally – with a 22.4 point per game average, a mark that jumps to a SoCon-best 24.0 in league games only. He continues to rank second nationally at 12.4 rebounds per game which includes an NCAA-best 9.96 defensive boards per game. He is tied for the most double-doubles in the country this season at 19, matching Akron's Enrique Freeman.
 
Additionally, Woolbright also ranks second in the SoCon in assists, dishing out an average of 5.5 per game, while also sitting inside the SoCon's top 10 in minutes played (1st, 34.4 avg/gm), field goal percentage (7th, 47.0%), assist-to-turnover ratio (8th, 1.6), free throw percentage (10th, 71.7%). He also has three of the top six single-game scoring totals in the SoCon this season, two coming in January.
 
All told, Woolbright is one of only four players in NCAA Division I currently averaging at least 19.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game, joining McCullar Jr. (Kansas), KJ Simpson (Colorado), and Dillon Jones (Weber State).
 
Western Carolina (16-7, 5-5 SoCon) returns home for the first of back-to-back home dates, hosting The Citadel (9-14, 1-9 SoCon) in midweek action on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs rallied from a double-digit deficit before falling at ETSU on Saturday, 62-60. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live streaming audio from the Catamount Sports Network and live stats available online at CatamountSports.com. WCU hosts Mercer on Saturday in the Ingles SoCon Game of the Week on Nexstar with an updated start time of 3 p.m. in Cullowhee.
 
For tickets to WCU's home games, please visit CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets. 
 
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WCU Men's Basketball All-Time SoCon Players of the Month:
Vonterius Woolbright – Jan. 2024
Vonterius Woolbright – Dec. 2023
Vonterius Woolbright – Nov. 2023
Carlos Dotson – Feb. 2020
Torrion Brummitt – Feb. 2016
James Sinclair – Nov. 2014