Milwaukee's Avery Smith named Men's Basketball Player of the Week
Jan. 5, 2009
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INDIANAPOLIS --- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior guard Avery Smith has been named Horizon League Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week ending Jan. 4.
A native of Milwaukee, Smith averaged a League-best 21.5 points plus five rebounds and five assists per game in road victories last week at the University of Illinois at Chicago (71-66) and Loyola University Chicago (80-66). He scored a season-high 28 points in the win at Loyola Saturday, including 20 in the second half, for his fourth 20-point game of the season. Against UIC last Tuesday, Smith shared team scoring honors with 15 points, 10 of which came in the final 10 minutes as the Panthers put the game away.
For the season, Smith ranks seventh in the Horizon League with 13.8 points per game and also averages 4.8 rebounds and three assists per contest.
Milwaukee (8-5, 4-0 Horizon League) enters this week's action in first place in the League standings -- a half-game ahead of nationally-ranked Butler University and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay -- and is 4-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2005-06 season. The Panthers have won five of their last six games, heading into Monday's home game against Valparaiso University. UWM will play host to in-state rival Green Bay Friday in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.
Comprised of 10 public and private institutions of higher learning, the Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 intercollegiate championships and is headquartered in Indianapolis. The League and its member institutions aspire to teach young people, through athletic competition, the value of learning, service to others and personal responsibility.
Horizon League teams have enjoyed national success in a variety of sports in recent years, most notably in men's basketball, in which its teams have advanced to the Regional semi-finals of the NCAA Championship three times in the past seven seasons.
