HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Just seven weeks into the 2018-19 men's basketball campaign, Northern Kentucky standout Drew McDonald has collected his third Nike Horizon League Player of the Week honor. This is also McDonald's seventh player of the week accolade of his career.
 
The native of Cold Spring, Kentucky, posted his second-straight double-double and sixth of the season, which are the 13^th-most in the country, with 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead NKU to a nonconference season sweep of Northern Illinois. The Norse defeated the Huskies, 65-62.
 
As Northern Kentucky enters Horizon League play on Friday, McDonald ranks fourth in the league in scoring at 18.3 points per game but is averaging a league-leading 9.5 rebounds per outing.
 
McDonald, the two-time Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year and two-time league first team honoree, is one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, as well as a candidate for the Lou Henson Award presented to the nation's best mid-major player and the Naismith Hall of Fame Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.
 
McDonald is also continuing his assault on NKU's career records. In Thursday's win over Northern Illinois he moved into sixth all-time in scoring for the Norse with 1,669 points. He is already the program's career leader in rebounds (886) and defensive rebounds (667) and ranks fourth in free-throws-made (362).
 
Northern Kentucky is 10-3 overall, its best start in the DI era, and opens Horizon League play on Friday, Dec. 28, with a home matchup against IUPUI. The Jaguars went 8-4 in nonconference action, the second-best mark by a league school. Tip-off at BB&T Arena is slated for 7 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.