Men's Basketball Notes - Feb. 22
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OGDEN, Utah (February 22, 2016) – A potential battle for the No. 1 seed at the upcoming Big Sky Conference men’s basketball championship is looming as Weber State and Montana are both tied atop the conference table with 12-2 records. Both teams could enter their showdown on Saturday in Ogden with identical conference marks.
Sacramento State, Northern Arizona and Southern Utah are the only teams eliminated from contention for a first-round bye at the Big Sky tournament. All three teams will be in action when the tournament tips off on Tuesday, March 8 from the Reno Events Center.
This Saturday could be “Separation Saturday” as several Big Sky teams have a chance to make some space in the conference standings.
This Week’s Top Performers
Perrion Callandret (UI) – Averaged 16.5 points per game in his first full weekend back. Also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals. Callandret led the Vandals with 19 points in the win over Portland State.
Martin Breunig (UM) - Breunig scored 49 points and pulled down 19 rebounds in leading UM to a pair of wins. Against NAU, he became the 30th player in Montana history to score 1,000 points, doing so in only two seasons.
Jeremy Senglin (WSU) - Averaged 18.5 points and made seven 3-pointers while shooting 62 percent from the field in Weber State’s two wins last week. He had 15 points on 5 of 8 shooting and made two 3-pointers in Thursday’s win at Southern Utah.
He followed that up with 22 points on 8 of 13 shooting and made five 3-pointers in Saturday’s win at Northern Arizona. For the week he was 13 of 21 shooting and 7 of 12 from 3-point land.
Tyler Hall (MSU) - Scored 30 points against Montana in Missoula on Saturday, the most in a Cat-Griz game since 2013. Hall finished the game 9-for-18 from the floor and hit seven three-pointers. He also grabbed four rebounds.
Ako Kaluna (NAU) -- Ako Kaluna averaged 19.5 points and 9.5 rebounds to lead NAU to a 1-1 record this past week. NAU had the largest margin of victory on Thursday night over fourth place Idaho State as Kaluna led the Jacks with a near double-double of 17 points and nine rebounds. He shot 75 percent from the floor and made all three of his free throw attempts. Two days later, Kaluna registered a double-double of 22 points and nine rebounds in the three-point loss to the top-ranked Wildcats.
Quinton Hooker (UND) -- Hooker helped keep UND in the hunt for a top-four seed and first-round bye in Reno with a solid all-around performance in the team’s 74-73 victory over Northern Colorado on Saturday. Hooker poured in a game-high 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the floor and went 7-for-7 from the foul line, including four makes in the final 33 seconds. The 6-foot guard also corralled a game-high eight rebounds and added four assists.
Defensively, he equaled his career-high with five steals, helping the Fighting Hawks force the Bears into a season-high 23 turnovers.