Complete WAC Release

DENVER - The man who returned to his hometown for the first time in his collegiate career and balled out is, once again, the best hooper in the Western Athletic Conference through the last seven days.

As announced by the WAC office via a press release Monday morning, NM State guard Teddy Allen picked up the title of WAC Player of the Week for the fourth time in the 2021-22 campaign.

Allen, who is the first Aggie since Zach Lofton in 2017-18 to secure four WAC Player of the Week awards, helped NM State keep pace with Seattle U at the top of the league standings with a pair of fine showings last week.

Wednesday night in Las Cruces, Allen turned in a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double to help the Aggies get by Dixie State, 75-64. It was Saturday night in Phoenix, though, in which Allen put on a performance that may have swung the race for WAC Player of the Year a little more into his favor.

Facing off against Grand Canyon - and a venomous crowd of over 7,000 onlookers which included the likes of the Phoenix Suns' Cam Payne - Allen put on a show worthy of the price of admission. The league's scoring leader pumped in a game-high 30 points on a 10-of-21 clip from the field and put the finishing touches on his third-straight double-double by snaring another 10 boards to help NM State torch the Lopes by an 82-66 tally.

With that big night in Phoenix, Allen hiked his 2021-22 scoring average to an even 20.0 points per game - the highest mark in the league and the 20th-best in the nation. His double-double at GCU Arena was his third in as many games, making him the first NM State player to submit three consecutive double-doubles since Eli Chuha did so in the 2018-19 season. It also hiked his rebounding average to a team-leading 7.4 per contest - the third-best average in the WAC. Through the Aggies' two-game stretch last week, Allen averaged 25.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game while posting shooting splits of .410/.368/.846. 

Allen's eight consecutive games of 20 or more points represent the longest streak of such games by an NM State player in the 21st century. That streak of 20+ point outings is also the second-longest active one among all NCAA Division I men's basketball players. Only Bryant's Peter Kiss - the nation's scoring leader - is on a lengthier run (nine games).

Allen and the rest of the Aggies are less than 12 hours away from a pivotal engagement with Seattle U inside the Redhawk Center. At 8:00 p.m. MT tonight, NM State and Seattle U will duke it out to see who will take ownership of sole possession of first place in the league standings and who will slip down to third place as the home stretch of the regular season looms.

For complete coverage of NM State men's basketball throughout the 2021-22 season, visit NMStateSports.com - the official home of Aggie athletics - and follow the Aggies on Facebook (NM State Men's Basketball), Twitter (@NMStateMBB) and Instagram (@NMStateMBB).

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