MAC Men’s Basketball Players of the Week: 2/6/17

It’s Monday, and I am sure everyone is sitting around the water cooler talking about the great week of MAC shootyhoops action. Maybe no one here won their 5th Super Bowl, or called 5 running plays up 3 scores, but there was some fantastic action none the less. Only 1 game was decided by more than 12, and we had double overtime in a rivalry game. That game produced 2 of our players of the week.

Steve Taylor Jr., Senior, Toledo Rockets

Mr. Taylor had a great game, before fouling out late against the Falcons. He tallied 25 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in the loss. The thirteen rebounds were his lowest output in the last 4 games.

In game before, in another close loss, he scored 23 points and snagged 18 rebounds.

I generally wont put someone on the list with 2 losses, but I felt Taylor played well enough, and the losses were extremely close. To take a page out of 2007 LSU football, the Rockets only lost the games by 1 point in regulation.

Wes Alcegaire, Senior, Bowling Green Falcons

Averaging 12.6 points per game on the season, Alcegaire stepped his game up last week, and that’s a big reason why the Falcons won both games.

Down 5 with 2:09 left in the first overtime, Alcegaire scored 8 points to help propel the Falcons to the second overtime. He finished the contest with 22 points on 8 of 11 shooting, and 5 rebounds.

In the win over Miami, he scored 25 on 9 of 15 shooting.

Blake Hamilton, Senior, Buffalo Bulls

Hamilton has been on a terror the last 3 games. The previous week, he scored 33 in the loss to Akron. Last week, he was instrumental in the Bull’s two wins.

Against Ball State, he had 25 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

His game against Central Michigan was even more impressive, with a near triple double, 27 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists.

If Hamilton keeps playing like that, the Bulls are a certain contender for an unprecedented third consecutive MAC tournament win.

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Jaaron Simmmons, Junior, Ohio university Bobcats

A poor shooting game in the loss against Western Michigan almost kept him off the list. He also had 4 turnovers. On the plus side, he finished with 18 points and 6 assists.

He followed that up with 38 against Akron, giving the Zips their only loss on the season. He also added 10 rebounds and 5 assists. No sane person would leave him off the list after a virtuoso performance like that.

Franko House, Senior, Ball State Cardinals

In the loss to the resurgent Bulls, House had 24 points and 6 rebounds. He had an impressive 19 points and 9 rebounds in the win against the Rockets.

Everything House does for the Cardinals doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but he stuffed it quite nicely last week, none the less.