WAC NOTES
HAWAI‘I’S JOAQUIM NAMED VERIZON WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Hawai‘i’s Vander Joaquim has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 12-18. The honor marks the first career WAC Player of the Week award for Joaquim.
Joaquim, a center from Luanda, Angola (Eastern Utah CC), led Hawai‘i to a 2-0 record last week with wins over Hawaii-Hilo and North Carolina A&T. In the 79-66 victory over Hawaii-Hilo, Joaquim recorded his second straight double-double of the season with 19 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. He scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to help UH turn a two-point halftime deficit into a double-digit win. He also posted 16 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in a 65-57 win over North Carolina A&T as UH won its third straight game.
On the week, Joaquim averaged 17.7 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.0 assists per game. He shot 65.0 percent (13-of-20) from the field and 90.0 percent (9-of-10) from the free throw line.
Other nominees included: Fresno State sophomore forward Jerry Brown … Idaho senior guard Landon Tatum … Louisiana Tech freshman guard Raheem Appleby … Nevada senior forward Olek Czyz … New Mexico State senior guard Hernst Laroche … Utah State sophomore guard Preston Medlin.
WEEK 6 WAC HIGHLIGHTS
Hawai‘i, Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State each have gone 2-0 over their last two contests. Hawai‘i island hopped to defeat Hawaii-Hilo and North Carolina A&T. UH’s Shaquille Stokes averaged 20.0 points per game over the two wins, while Vander Joaquim averaged a double-double with 17.5 points and 12.0 rebounds per game. Louisiana Tech downed both McNeese State and Arkansas-Little Rock. Raheem Appleby led the team averaging 16.5 points per game over the two victories. New Mexico State defeated Western New Mexico and Southern. Idaho, Nevada and Utah State each went 1-0 on the week. WAC teams combined for a 9-2 record.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS, TICKETS ON SALE NOW
The 2012 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 7-10 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will include all eight WAC teams. All-session tickets for the 2012 Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament presented by Verizon are available for purchase now. All-session tickets include access to each men’s and women’s tournament game, totaling 14 games in eight sessions. All-session tickets are on sale Friday through the Orleans Arena Box Office. Tickets will also be available for purchase through each WAC school’s ticket office. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets from their institution’s ticket office or online to avoid service fees associated with ticket sales through the Orleans Arena. Single-session tickets, which allow access to the two games listed in the session will be sold only on the day of the respective game, and can only be purchased through the Orleans Arena. Fans who wish to attend only the women’s tournament games may purchase a women’s tournament all-session ticket through the Orleans Arena ticket office.
INDIVIDUAL WAC SINGLE-GAME PERFORMANCES RANK NATIONALLY
New Mexico State’s Christian Kabongo connected on a perfect 15-of-15 free throws against Southern Miss on Nov. 25 at the Great Alaska Shootout. The 15-of-15 effort ranks as the second-best single game free throw mark in the nation this season. Utah State’s Preston Medlin hit eight three-point field goals in a win at Idaho State on Nov. 26. That performance is the fourth-best mark in the nation this season.
ESPN SEARS BRACKETBUSTERS
For the 10th year in a row, the WAC has partnered with ESPN and several other top college basketball conferences for ESPN Sears BracketBusters, a weekend men’s basketball event matching potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other. All eight WAC teams will be a part of this year’s pool of teams. The event will be held February 18. The match-ups for Sears BracketBuster Saturday will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences about three weeks before the event.
WAC TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Fresno State Bulldogs (4-8, 0-0 WAC)
Fresno State went 0-2 this past week, falling 65-46 to Cal Poly before taking a 70-63 defeat at Boise State ... at home against Cal Poly, Bulldogs senior Jonathan Wills led Fresno State with a game-high 14 points and Brown added 10 points and six rebounds ... shooting guard Kevin Olekaibe, who had been limited in practice this week due to an ankle injury and entered the contest as the nation’s sixth-leading sophomore scorer, played 31 minutes and netted seven points on 3-of-13 shooting ... at Boise State, Kevin Olekaibe delivered a season-high 28 points and the team provided a strong defensive outing, but Boise State managed to hit just enough key shots and owned the glass en route to beating the Bulldogs ... Tyler Johnson added a career-best 17 points ... Fresno State will play its third game in six games on Wednesday against Arizona State (4-7).
Hawai‘i Rainbow Warriors (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
Hawai‘i went 2-0 last week with wins over UH-Hilo (79-66) and North Carolina A&T (65-57) ... in the first regular-season meeting between the teams in 21 years and UH’s first Big Island appearance in 10 years, the Rainbow Warriors trailed Division II UH Hilo by double-digits in the first half, before exploding for 47 points after the break to pick up the win ... Shaquille Stokes scored a career high 21 points to lead all UH scorers and Vander Joquim recorded his second straight double-double with 19 points and a career-high 17 rebounds ... versus North Carolina A&T, Stokes led the way with 19 points, scoring all but four of those points in the second half ... Joaquim added 16 points and seven rebounds, while Zane Johnson added 13 points ... UH will next host the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, Dec. 22, 23 & 25 ... the Bows will face Auburn in a first-round matchup on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. HT
Idaho Vandals (7-4, 0-0 WAC)
After a back-and-forth first half, Idaho exploded to start the second and left CSU Bakersfield behind in a 72-44 victory on Saturday at the Cowan Spectrum in the team’s lone game of the week ... junior center Kyle Barone led all players with 13 points and nine rebounds, while senior guard Landon Tatum added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, which included converting a pair of three-point plays ... Tatum also had four rebounds and three assists ... sophomore Stephen Madison posted a solid all-around game with nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and one steal in 21 minutes of play ... Idaho led by as many as 31 points – its largest lead of the season – on two occasions in the second half ... every Idaho player, except guard Sheridan Shayne who played just one minute, scored in the game ... Idaho plays at Wright State (4-8) on Tuesday, then plays at Wisconsin Green Bay (5-6) two days later.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (6-5, 0-0 WAC)
Louisiana Tech went 2-0 last week with home wins over McNeese State (60-58) and UALR (71-68) ... against McNeese State, sophomore guard Cordarius Johnson scored 19 points as Louisiana Tech survived a late rally from McNeese State ... sophomore guard Kenyon McNeail and Souza contributed eight points apiece while McNeail dished out a career-high nine assists ... behind a career-high 26 and 18 points from freshmen guards Raheem Appleby and Kenneth Smith, respectively, Louisiana Tech came back from 13 down in the second half to defeat Arkansas-Little Rock 71-68 ... Trevor Gaskins scored 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc while freshman forward Michale Kyser blocked three shots in only seven minutes of action ... Louisiana Tech ends their three-game homestand against Northeastern Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the TAC.
Nevada Wolf Pack (8-3, 0-0 WAC)
Malik Story and Olek Czyz scored 15 points each to lead Nevada over UC Riverside 71-47 on Saturday in the team’s only game of the week ... Dario Hunt had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Deonte Burton scored 10 as the Wolf Pack (8-3) extended its winning streak to five ... the Wolf Pack jumped to an 11-3 lead and extended the gap to 22-8 after a pair of free throws by Story with 11:47 to play ... Nevada led 35-22 at halftime behind Story’s 11 points. The junior guard’s three-point play gave Nevada a 35-20 lead with 37 seconds to go in the half ... Nevada improved to 5-1 at home. The Highlanders dropped to 2-5 away from Riverside ... Nevada now preps for a Dec. 22 home meeting against Portland.
New Mexico State Aggies (7-4, 0-0 WAC)
New Mexico State went 2-0 this past week with a 92-65 victory over Western New Mexico on Wednesday before a 91-66 win at home against Southern on Monday ... versus Western New Mexico, senior guard Hernst Laroche and redshirt senior forward Wendell McKines paced NM State with 18 points each ... Laroche not only had a season-high scoring performance but also a season-best five steals ... Hamidu Rahman recorded his first double-double of the year with 13 points and 13 rebounds, which were season-high marks ... against Southern, Rahman anchored the inside presence with a season-high 16 points and nine rebounds ... Laroche and freshman guard Daniel Mullings added 14 points each, which is a career-high mark for Mullings ... The Aggies host McNeese State, Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. inside the Pan American Center.
San Jose Spartans (3-7, 0-0 WAC)
San Jose State did not play this past week ... the Spartans host UC Davis on Tuesday (Dec. 20) and travel to play UC Riverside on Thursday ... the December 20 UC Davis game will be San Jose State’s first in 10 nights ... the extended break is the third longest during head coach George Nessman’s six-plus year tenure ... in 2007-08, the Spartans were off for 13 days ... the 2008-09 team had a 12-day break between games. In each case, San Jose State won its first game following the extended gap between contests.
Utah State Aggies (5-5, 0-0 WAC)
Sophomore guard Preston Medlin scored a game-high 22 points in leading Utah State to an easy 78-53 home win against future WAC member Seattle (2-7) Saturday to even its ledger at 5-5 on the season ... for Utah State, its 78 points were a season-high and its 25-point win was its largest of the year ... USU also shot 50 percent from the field for the second time in as many games and for the third time this season ... Medlin, who was 6-of-12 from the field, 3-of-5 from three-point range and a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line, has now scored in double-figures in each of his last six games as he reached the 20-point plateau for the second time this year ... junior forward Kyisean Reed added 13 points as he has now scored in double-figures in four-straight games ... USU continues its stretch of four home games in six days by hosting UT-Arlington, Saint Peter’s and Kent State in its annual Gossner Foods Tournament.