Submitted by Fox First at Ten on January 1st
By Idaho Athletics
The Western Athletic Conference honored University of Idaho senior center Kyle Barone on Monday with its Men's Basketball Player of the Week honor for his efforts the week of Dec. 24-30.
Barone, a 6-10 center from Garden Grove, Calif. (Pacifica HS), led Idaho to a 71-64 comeback victory in its WAC opener at Seattle U on Saturday. With junior guard Stephen Madison, the team's leading scorer, hampered with foul troubles all night, Barone scored a career-high-tying 25 points and grabbed a season-high-tying 11 rebounds, despite double- and triple-teams from the Redhawk defense most of the night.
The win moved Idaho to 5-0 in WAC road openers since head coach Don Verlin took over in the 2008-09 season and gave Idaho a WAC-opening win for the third time under Verlin.
A preseason All-WAC honoree, Barone went 8-of-15 from the floor and converted nine of his 11 free throw attempts, including a pair of three-point plays, in 38 minutes of play. He scored 16 of Idaho's 38 second-half points in the game, including nine points in a row for Idaho at one point. In his last three games, Barone is averaging 21.3 points and 9.0 rebounds on 71.0 field goal shooting and .909 free throw shooting.
The honor is the first by a Vandal this season and the third of Barone's career. He was selected as the WAC Player of the Week twice last season.
Barone and the Vandal men return to action next weekend at San Jose State on Thursday, Jan. 3 and at Utah State on Saturday, Jan. 5.
