Here’s who readers chose as preps basketball player of the week in southwest Illinois

Kaden Augustine of Gibault Catholic High School is the winner of the fifth Belleville News-Democrat Player of the Week high school basketball poll, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

In recent high school basketball games, Augustine, a junior guard, averaged 13 points per game at the Columbia-Freeburg Holiday Tournament in helping the Hawks to a fifth place finish. Most recently, he posted 18 points in a 43-32 win against Wesclin on Tuesday. Entering action this weekend, Augustine was averaging 14.2 points per game.

Augustine tallied 1,418 votes (97%) to finish ahead of fellow BND nominees Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School, Shannon Dowell of O’Fallon High School, Hayden Hoffmann of Carlyle High School, Shakara McCline of East St. Louis High School, Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School, Bella Peterson of Althoff Catholic High School, Jordan Pickett of Belleville East High School and Maliah Sparks of Belleville West High School

The poll is not scientific. Readers may vote as many times as they’d like. It’s all for fun.

Anyone can nominate a varsity boys or girls high school basketball player for an upcoming poll by emailing gvartanian@bnd.com. The Week 6 poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Past poll winners: Tyler Lunning of O’Fallon High School (Week 1), Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School (Week 2), Brady Moore of Breese Central High School (Week 3), Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic (Week 4).

This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 7:00 AM.