University of Maine at Farmington men’s basketball seniors Terion Moss and Jack Kane were named the North Atlantic Conference Player of the Week and co-Defensive Player of the Week, respectively, by the conference Monday.
It’s the third time this season the teammates have received those honors in the same week, and it is Kane’s fourth Defensive Player of the Week award during the 2022-23 campaign.
Moss’ most recent weekly award comes after consecutive 20-plus-point performances against NAC rival Husson University over the weekend. He scored 22 points, recorded eight assists and didn’t commit a turnover in an 82-76 home win over the Eagles on Friday, then followed that up with 27 points — including 19 in the second half — as the Beavers pulled away from a one-point halftime advantage to win 76-58 on Saturday. He also added five rebounds and five assists in the win. His week began with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists in an 86-77 loss to Bowdoin College on Wednesday.
After a quiet night (two rebounds) in the Beavers’ loss at Bates College on Tuesday, the Kane pulled down at least eight rebounds in each contest the rest of the week, including nine in Friday’s win over Husson. He also recorded two blocks and a steal against Bowdoin, two steals in Friday’s win over Husson and four blocks in Saturday’s road win.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
GRAFF SHARES HONOR: Bates College’s Meghan Graff was named NESCAC co-Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 32.5 points across two contests last week.
The Bobcat senior guard started her week off with 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting — to go along with four assists — against the University of Maine at Farmington on Tuesday, then poured in a season-high 44 points in an overtime loss to Tufts University of Saturday.
Graff entered Saturday’s contest needing 21 points to match the Bates women’s program record for career points, which was 1,478 points, set by 2000 graduate Emily King. Graff surpassed that mark with a 3-pointer in the second quarter against Tufts. She now has 1,507 points with eight regular season games remaining.
The 44 points Graff scored Saturday is one shy of the program record for single-game scoring, 45 points, which Graff set against Williams on Feb. 14, 2020.
Graff also has a chance to set a new Bates season scoring record. The current mark is the 518 points scored by Meredith Kelley in 2013-14. Graff has 357 points and needs to average a little more than 20 points in the final eight regular season games to surpass Kelly’s record. In 16 games this season, Graff is averaging 22.3 points per game — even before Saturday’s 44-point outing, her scoring average was 20.9, so Graff is on pace to surpass Kelly.
The Player of the Week honor is the fourth of Graff’s career. She shared this week’s honor with Tufts’ Maggie Russell, who tallied 33 points and 15 rebounds in Saturday’s overtime win over Bates.
INDOOR TRACK
ABUKAR RECOGNIZED AGAIN: Abdirizak Abukar, a St. Joseph’s College freshman and former Lewiston High School standout, received the third Great Northeast Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week honor of his debut season, the conference announced Monday.
Abukar placed second in the 200-meter dash in a time of 23.32 seconds and was fifth in the 60-meter dash in a time of 7.32 seconds in a meet at Plymouth State University on Saturday.
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