WICHITA - Kansas Wesleyan's Izaiah Hale has earned the KCAC Men's Basketball Defensive Player of the Week honor, the conference announced on Monday. Student-athletes are selected for their performances from Oct. 28-Nov. 3 by a vote of conference sports information directors. All KCAC Player of the Week honors are presented by Equity Bank.
Hale was a big part in helping the No. 24 ranked Coyotes open the season with a pair of victories in the Kansas Wesleyan Coyote Basketball Classic, presented by Nex-Tech Wireless on Friday and Saturday.
Hale was great on defense for the Coyotes to open the season. His most impressive performance was on Saturday, when he had to guard Wayland Baptist's Quenton Coleman, who had scored 31 points the night before against Bethel, and held him to 15 points, while forcing him into 20 total shots, and into 1-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. While not always finishing with the steal, he forced Coleman into five turnovers as well. Against Northern New Mexico, he guarded their guards Joziah Ramos and Jesus Mendoza and forced them into a combined 4 of 15 shooting and three turnovers, again not always getting the steal, but his defense forcing them into bad decisions that led to turnovers.
KWU is back in action this week with three games, at Manhattan Christian on Tuesday, then a weekend classic in Sioux City, Iowa, against Waldorf on Friday and Morningside on Saturday.