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DENVER - NM State graduate student guard Zach Lofton has been named Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 11-17. This is his second WAC Player of the Week honor of the season and of his career.
The St. Paul, Minn., native averaged 26.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 steal while shooting on 58.3 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range in a pair of wins last week. In the Aggies' final home game of the 2017 calendar year, Lofton finished with 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting while knocking down 4-of-8 from three-point range. On Saturday, he led the Aggies to their first win over a Big Ten opponent since 2004 at the United Center with a 74-69 victory over Illinois. The grad transfer orchestrated the comeback in the second half after the Illini roared back to erase the NM State 12-point halftime lead, scoring the go-ahead bucket for the Aggies. Lofton finished with 23 points, four rebounds and two assists in the win. He currently ranks second in the WAC in scoring (19.5), seventh in three-pointers per game (2.1), eighth in field goal percentage (53.1), and ninth in both three-point percentage (38.3) and minutes per game (30.1).
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Rickey Holden finished with 16 points, four rebounds and two steals in a win over Georgia Southern ... Keonta Vernon of Grand Canyon averaged 12.0 points and 8.5 rebounds as the Lopes went 1-1 on the week ... Kansas City's Xavier Bishop finished with 25 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in a loss to UIW ... Jordan Hill of Seattle U averaged 22.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.0 steals as the Redhawks went 2-0 on the week ... UT Rio Grande Valley's Greg Bowie finished with 17 points on 66.7 percent shooting and four assists in a loss to UT Arlington ... Zach Nelson of Utah Valley averaged 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists as the Wolverines went 1-1 last week.