LAFAYETTE — Former Morgan City standout Shawn Long, whose 17 points and 16 rebounds helped the Cajuns defeat Arkansas State Saturday, has been named the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday.

“Shawn has played such an important role in the development that this program has shown since the start of the season, and I am happy to see that he is getting some recognition for the hard work that he has put in,” University of Louisiana at Lafayette head coach Bob Marlin said in a university release.

“Playing short-handed on Saturday without one of our best scorers, Shawn really stepped up his play at both ends of the court,” Marlin said. “He played some solid defense inside and was continually the person to bring down the important rebounds. He had a nice performance.”

Long, a 6 foot 9 inch, 243 pound freshman, averaged 15.5 points and 15 rebounds in the two games last week. He scored 14 points with 14 rebounds and five blocks in a 91-89 double overtime loss to South Alabama last Thursday.

He came back Saturday to record his 10th double-double of the season with his 16 rebounds falling one shy of his career rebounding high.

Long ranks fourth in the nation in double-doubles, one short of the national leaders.

Aided by 30 rebounds in the two games last week, Long took the national lead for freshman rebounding this year. He has grabbed 187 rebounds in 19 games (9.8 rebounds per game) to move ahead of Longwood’s Michael Kessens (9.5) and Binghamton’s Jordan Reed (9.4).

Long leads the Sun Belt in defensive rebounding (7.1), is second in rebounding (9.8), third in scoring (16.7), fourth in blocked shots (2) and seventh in offensive rebounds (2.7)

Long and the Cajuns continue Sun Belt play this week, traveling to Bowling Green, Ky. to face Western Kentucky Thursday at 7 p.m. and then onto Murfreesboro, Tenn. for a 5:30 p.m. game on Saturday at Middle Tennessee. The Western Kentucky game will be available on ESPN3.com.