Kenny Hayes Tabbed MAC East Division Player of the Week
2/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2008
CLEVELAND--Behind two 20-plus-point scoring efforts to spearhead Miami University's men's basketball team to a pair of road wins last week, RedHawk junior guard Kenny Hayes (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont/Cincinnati State) was named the Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Feb. 4).
The RedHawks defeated Northern Illinois 66-51 on Jan. 30 and Ball State 66-54 on Feb. 2, their first back-to-back road wins and also their first road wins in consecutive games since 2005-06. Miami's win at Northern Illinois was their first MAC road win of the season.
Against Northern Illinois, Hayes amassed a Miami career-high 25 points off a 10-of-16 shooting effort (.625) en route to a 66-51 win, which was the RedHawks' largest in MAC play and their second largest win of the season.
He followed that by again recording a Miami career high of 27 points against Ball State, going 7-of-11 from the field (.636), 3-of-4 from 3-point range (.750) and a whopping 10-of-11 from the free-throw line (.909). Hayes manufactured a 14-0 run by himself against the Cardinals, which lifted the RedHawks to a 22-point lead midway through the second half, their largest lead in any game this season.
For the week, Hayes averaged an impressive 26.0 ppg while shooting a sizzling 63.0 percent from the field (17-of-27), including 60.0 percent from 3-point range (6-of-10). He also shot an impressive 92.3 percent from the free-throw line (12-of-13). Additionally, Hayes averaged 2.5 rpg and 3.0 apg in an average of 35.5 minutes of action
Hayes has scored 20 or more points in three of the RedHawks' last five games and averaged 19.3 ppg over the last six games.
This is the first MAC weekly award for Hayes and the fourth for a RedHawk this season. Junior forward Michael Bramos earned player of the week honors on Nov. 26, while senior forward Tim Pollitz has earned the honor twice (Nov. 19 and Dec. 24).
