BYU’s Caleb Lohner Earns First WCC Freshman Of The Week Honor After Win Over Utah

PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball forward Caleb Lohner has been named the WCC Freshman of the Week. It’s the first time the heralded freshman from Wasatch Academy has received league recognition.

Lohner, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound true freshman, has played in all eight of BYU’s games this season. But Saturday’s performance against Utah, the program he was once signed to play for, was his best performance to date.

#BYU forward Caleb Lohner has been named WCC Freshman of the Week after putting together a near double-double 8 points, 10 rebound performance against rival Utah.#BYUHoops @kslsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) December 14, 2020

In the 82-64 win over the Utes, Lohner came off the bench and shot 50 percent from the field and three-point range to score eight points and pulled down a career-high ten rebounds to help BYU improve to 6-2 on the season.

Lohner nearly had the double-double had he converted a highlight-reel worthy dunk on the baseline on Utah’s Mikael Jantunen. But it didn’t fall.

Lohner is averaging 5.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists per game in his first season with the Cougars.

Coming out of Wasatch Academy, Lohner was rated as the No. 199 overall prospect in the class of 2020 by the 247Sports Composite rankings. He held offers from Utah, Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, Texas, and Texas A&M, before ultimately signing with Mark Pope’s BYU program.

Caleb Lohner and the rest of the WCC Freshman of the Week honorees in 2020-21

The Freshman of the Week honor in the West Coast Conference is a new addition for this year. Lohner is the third different Freshman to receive the recognition in as many weeks. The first week of the season, Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs was named the initial freshman of the week after the Zags defeated Kansas and Auburn. Followed by Saint Mary’s guard Leemet Bockler who scored 20 points in a win over Texas Southern.

BYU basketball returns to action this Friday when they travel to face San Diego State in Viejas Arena. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 3 p.m. (MT) and will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper and the KSL Sports app.