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DENVER - NM State junior guard Braxton Huggins has been named Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 2-8. This is his first WAC Player of the Week honor of his career.
The Bakersfield, Calif., native averaged 29.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game as the Aggies went 2-0 on the road to open WAC play and extend their winning streak to 13 games. Huggins shot 55.9 percent from the floor, 52.4 percent from beyond the arc and 90 percent from the free throw line on the week. He opened the week by leading NM State to a 77-64 victory over UMKC with a career-high 31 points 10-of-18 shooting, including 6-of-10 shooting from downtown, to go with four rebounds, one assist and one block. Huggins followed it up on Saturday at Chicago State with a game-high 27 points, three assists and two rebounds. He committed just one turnover in 58 minutes of action on the week and has now scored 24 or more points in four of the last six games. Huggins, who entered the week averaging 13.9 points per game, now ranks seventh in the WAC in scoring (15.7), second in three-point shooting (48.6), third in three-pointers per game (3.12) and fourth in free throw shooting (84.2).
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Dedrick Basile averaged 20.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 1.5 assists as the Roadrunners went 2-0 on the week ... Trayvon Palmer of Chicago State posted a pair of double-doubles and averaged 17.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game in a pair of losses ... Joshua Braun of Grand Canyon finished with 31 points, including a GCU Division I record-tying seven three-pointers, and five rebounds in a win over Utah Valley ... UMKC's LaVell Boyd averaged 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals over three games last week ... Nick Dixon of UT Rio Grande Valley averaged 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game as the Vaqueros went 1-1 on the week ... Utah Valley's Conner Toolson averaged 17.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists as the Wolverines went 1-1 last week.