Wendell McKines earns WAC POW

New Mexico State’s Wendell McKines has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 14-20. The honor marks the first career WAC Player of the Week award for McKines.

McKines, a senior forward from Oakland, Calif. (Richmond HS), led the Aggies to a pair of rivalry wins and a 3-0 start for the first time since the 2003-04 season. Scoring all 14 of his points in the second half, McKines led the Aggies to their first win in Albuquerque since 2002, defeating New Mexico 62-53. McKines had a game-high nine rebounds with two assists, a blocked shot and a steal against the Lobos. In NMSU’s 89-73 home-opening win over UTEP, McKines scored a career-high 23 points along with 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the year and 29th of his career. He was 5-of-13 from the field and a career-best 12-of-15 from the free throw line. He also had two assists and three steals.

On the week, McKines averaged 18.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 2.0 assists per game. He shot 37.0 percent (10-of-27) from the field and 75.0 percent (15-of-20) from the free throw line.

Other nominees included:

* Fresno State sophomore guard Kevin Olekaibe
* Hawai‘i senior guard Zane Johnson
* Louisiana Tech senior guard Trevor Gaskins
* Nevada junior guard Malik Story
* Utah State senior forward Morgan Grim