CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) office has announced the McDonald's CCC Players of the Week, presented by Urban Edge Network, for the competitions held between November 17th to 23rd, where the Corban University Men's Basketball team saw one of their upperclassmen leaders selected to his second Defensive Player of the Week accolade in 2025-26. Redshirt senior guard Anjay Cortez continued his non-conference defensive showcase over this past weekend, where he helped lead the Warriors to a 2-0 appearance at the Simpson Classic.

To read the full list of CCC Players of the Week released today by the conference office, click HERE.

"Anjay again has been the catalyst to our defense over this past weekend," began Corban head coach Wayne Mendezona when asked to discuss his second weekly award winner since becoming the Warriors' head coach. "His length, effort, tenacity, and pure heart held Simpson's best offensive scorer to just eight points while forcing five turnovers. His great defensive presence led us to a pair of wins over worthy opponents. I couldn't be prouder of Anjay for winning this award a second time."

Back-to-back double-double efforts with massive defensive stops earned Cortez his second CCC Player of the Week honor in a three-week period, as he tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds against California State University Maritime on Friday night before an 11-point and 11-rebound effort against the tourney host Red Hawks of Simpson University. He accumulated four steals over the weekend and continued to lockdown his opponents' top offensive threats.

The Navy and Gold are now 3-3 overall on the early season heading into their first home game of 2025-26, with their 2-0 weekend down the I-5 interstate in Redding allowing them to return to a .500 win percentage and get to play three of their next four games on their home court. Their six-game road trip to start Mendezona's first season included a Top 10 national win over then No. 9-ranked The Master's University. Over that span, Cortez is second on the team in scoring (11.5 PPG), first in rebounding (7.3 RPG), and top of the charts in both steals (13) and blocks (7).

Cortez will lead the Warriors into their home opener this upcoming Saturday the 29th, where they will host Northwest Indian College (0-8) for a 6pm tipoff.

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