By Theo Lawson

The Spokesman-Review

For the second time this season, Washington State’s CJ Elleby was voted the most outstanding player of the week in the Pac-12 Conference, the league announced Monday afternoon.

Elleby won the award despite playing just one game this week, and earned it just three weeks after the conference recognized him for his performance in a home sweep against Oregon and Oregon State.

This time, Elleby was handed the award for his 34-point eruption against Washington, which allowed WSU to beat the rival Huskes, 79-67, in Sunday’s game at Beasley Coliseum. The 34 points were a career-high for Elleby, who’d scored 27 points four times this season, they matched the fourth-most ever scored by a Cougar against the Huskies, they were the most ever for an underclassman in the rivalry and they were the second-most by any WSU player against a UW team coached by Mike Hopkins.

In adddition to the 34 points, which came on 9-of-16 from the field, 6-of-9 from three-point range and 10-of-10 from the free throw line, Elleby also grabbed 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and contributed three blocks, two assists and one steal.

Elleby becomes the first WSU player to win the award twice in the same season since Brock Motum did it in 2012-13, and the first underclassman to win it twice since in a year since Klay Thompson in 2009-10.

The Seattle native has scored 20-plus points on 14 occasions this season and has been in double digits all but three games. Elleby’s 19 points per game rank third in the Pac-12 and his team-leading 7.3 rebounds per game are eighth in the conference.