Freeburg High School star forward Boys Player of the Week in southwestern Illinois

Lane Otten of Freeburg High School is the winner of this week’s Belleville News-Democrat Boys Player of the Week high school basketball poll, as selected by readers of bnd.com.

In recent action, Otten, a senior forward, posted 29 points and 11 rebounds in a 57-49 victory against Wood River and 24 points and 9 rebounds in a 50-43 victory against Father McGivney.

Otten, who tallied 65% of the votes, entered the weekend averaging 16 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting 46.5% from 3-point range.

Here were the other candidates for the week of Jan. 23-28:

• Zach Chambers, Collinsville High School, junior, C. Chambers went 9-for-9 from the field and 3-for-5 from the free throw line while finishing with 21 points and 7 rebounds in a 71-60 victory against Belleville West.
• Myles Liddell, Belleville West High School, junior, F. Liddel posted 18 points and 4 steals in a 63-35 win against Metro-East Lutheran. He also posted 13 points in a 71-60 loss to Collinsville.
• Dylan Murphy, Columbia High School, senior, F. Murphy posted 17 points in a 63-45 win over Waterloo and 24 points in a 72-37 victory against Salem.
• Macaleab Rich, East St. Louis High School, senior, F. Rich put up consecutive double-doubles, collecting 26 points and 10 rebounds in a 67-51 win against Alton and 25 and 14 rebounds in a 66-54 win against CBC.
  
  
• Antwine Wilson, Belleville East High School, senior, F. Wilson posted 16 points and 12 rebounds in a 65-57 win over Granite City.

The poll ended at 8 a.m. Friday.

To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers.

The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Wednesday. Please email nominations to gvartanian@bnd.com.

Previous poll winners: Taylor Smith of Belleville East High School; Cole Stuart of Freeburg High School; Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School; Clareece Davis of Althoff Catholic High School; the Freeburg-Columbia Holiday Tournament; Jordan Lewis of Althoff Catholic High School; Karsen Jany of Columbia High School; David Marshall Jr. of Belleville West High School; Marshall Jr.; Addi Dilley of Red Bud High School; Chase Lewis of Breese Central High School; and Sophia Loden of Mascoutah High School.

This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 7:00 AM.