WICHITA, Kan. – A day after scoring a career-high 32 points in a win at Evansville, Wichita State point guard Fred VanVleet was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week, Monday.
 
It's VanVleet's third player of the week honor this year (he also won on Dec. 14 and Jan. 11) and the fifth of his Shocker career.
 
VanVleet is averaging a team-high 14.6 points, 6.0 assists and 2.2 steals during MVC play with a 4.00-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
The senior out of Rockford, Ill. helped WSU grab a commanding three-game lead in the MVC standings on Sunday afternoon. A record crowd at Evansville's Ford Center watched WSU race to an early double-digit lead on its way to a 78-65 win over the second-place Aces.
 
VanVleet scored 24 of his 32 points in the second half – the highest single-half output for a Shocker in nine seasons under Gregg Marshall (besting the 23 scored by Cleanthony Early in a Jan. 9, 2013 win over Southern Illinois).
 
VanVleet also posted just the fifth 30-point game of the Marshall Era, joining Early (39 in the aforementioned SIU game and 31 in the 2014 NCAA Tournament against Kentucky) and Joe Ragland (31 in a Dec. 4, 2011 home win over No. 18 UNLV and 30 later that season in a bracket buster contest at Davidson).
 
In addition, VanVleet went 15-for-15 at the charity stripe to tie Dave Stallworth's single-game mark for most free throw makes without a miss, and he recorded his 200th career steal, making him just the second Shocker and 17th player in MVC history to reach that milestone.
 
In Wednesday's win over Loyola, VanVleet dished out eight assists with just one turnover.
 
For the week, he averaged 20.0 points and 5.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 steal with a strong 5.50 assist-to-turnover ratio. He was a perfect 17-for-17 at the foul line.
 
WSU moved up one spot in today's Associated Press Poll to No. 21 and gained three spots in the Coaches Poll, up to No. 22.
 
The Shockers host Southern Illinois Wednesday evening in an 8 p.m. CT tip on Cox Channel Kansas. The game can also be seen in Kansas City on Time Warner Sports Channel 2 and across the region on MVC-TV affiliates, including Fox Sports Midwest (subject to black out in the Cox Channel Kansas viewing area and in the KC metro area).