Arizona wing Bennedict Mathurin named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week

Arizona Wildcats wing Bennedict Mathurin has been named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week after helping UA secure three victories last week.

The Haitian-Canadian averaged 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in the wins over Colorado, Washington and Washington State.

That included a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double in the double overtime win at WSU, in which Mathurin made some key putbacks down the stretch and played several positions. He was also Arizona’s leading scorer at Washington where he had 13 points and six rebounds.

The former four-star recruit is having a great season so far, averaging 10.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.7 steals in just 20.8 minutes per game while shooting an efficient 49% from the field, 42% from 3 and 83% from the free throw line.

Mathurin is third on Arizona in scoring, fourth in rebounding and second in 3-point percentage. It might not be long before he cracks the starting lineup.

“Benn has been playing quality minutes,” assistant coach Jason Terry said after the WSU game. “Even though [the freshmen] make mistakes, as you will when you’re a freshman, they’ve played through the ultimate stakes, they’ve stayed confident, they’ve trusted their training, and they produced very well for us tonight. I mean, look at Benn. Benn stepped up and made two big free throws at the end, he hit big shots and he’s playing efficiently. So we like where they’re at now in their development, but there’s so much more room for them to grow and develop.”

Mathurin is the sixth UA player to be named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week since the award was created in 2019-29. That’s the most of any program.