COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  – Colorado State University Pueblo senior forward De'Shaun Cooper (San Diego, Calif./Balboa School) has been named this week's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Defensive Player of the Week as announced by the league office on Monday afternoon.

With his Player of the Week honor, Cooper becomes the first ThunderWolves men's basketball player to be recognized as a Player of the Week this season and first since Makiah Morris took home Defensive Player of the Week accolades on Nov. 27, 2023.

Cooper earns this week's RMAC Defensive Player of the Week accolade after averaging 13.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.5 blocked shots per game to help the Pack split home RMAC games with Chadron State and South Dakota Mines.

The 6-foot-9 forward opened the weekend with 10 rebounds, two blocks, two assists and 12 points in the Pack's 66-62 loss to Chadron State and then recorded 11 rebounds, two blocks, two steals, a career-high five assists and 15 points in a 68-58 win over South Dakota Mines. For the week, Cooper recorded 21 rebounds in two games, including 16 defensive boards and added four blocks and two steals on the week. His two double-doubles on the week pushed his season total to three and his career total to four.

On the season, Cooper is tied for the team lead in scoring at 12.2 points per game, but leads the team in rebounds (75), rebounds per game (7.5) and field goal percentage (66.7 percent). He is second in the league in field goal percentage and fourth in the league in rebounds per game. He has scored in seven of the Pack's 10 games and his three double-doubles are tied for second-most in the league. He enters this week's action having scored 883 career points and is 117 points shy of becoming the 28th player in school history to score 1,000 career points.

Meanwhile, the RMAC named Chadron State senior guard Zy Wright as this week's Offensive Player of the Week after averaging 24.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals, 1.5 assists and shooting 54 percent from the field to help the Eagles split their games last weekend with CSU Pueblo and UCCS.

Cooper and the rest of the Pack (8-2 overall, 3-1 RMAC) will conclude its pre-Christmas schedule this week by playing two games at the Hoops in the Hawai'i Holiday Classic in Honolulu. The Pack will open the event with an 11 p.m. MT game on Thursday, Dec. 19 against Alaska-Anchorage, before facing the host school, Hawai'i Pacific, on Friday, Dec. 20 at 11 p.m. MT.