The Tribune

It was a week of commemorative achievements for two of the Bahamas’ top collegiate basketball players as the NCAA regular season enters its final week.

Travis Munnings was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week as he continues to lead the ULM Warhawks’ late season surge and Dwight Coleby was honoured on Senior Night for his stellar season with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Munnings continued to post season best performances just after he won conference player of the week.

He finished with 26 points and nine rebounds, but the Warhawks saw their five-game winning streak end with a 73-67 loss to Troy.

He shot 8-14 from the field, 4-9 from three-point range and 6-8 from the free throw line in 28 minutes.

Munnings made a three pointer with 1:46 left to play as the Warhawks came within three (66-63) but Troy pushed the lead back to six with a corresponding three.

It was the third time Munnings scored at least 26 points in the last six games and has averaged 20 points per game during that timespan.

En route to winning Conference Player of the Week honours, Munnings averaged 21 points and 5.5 rebounds while helping ULM to a homecourt sweep over UT Arlington (84-71) and Texas State (79-71). He also made 9-of-21 three pointers (41 per cent) during that two-game stretch.

“Travis Munnings always plays with tremendous energy, however, he found an extra gear in the past two games against UT Arlington and Texas State,” ULM head coach Keith Richard said. “Travis is shooting the ball better this season, especially from behind the 3-point line. He’s also doing all the little things well during this winning streak. Travis is playing his best basketball at a good time, and we’re glad he’s being acknowledged for his efforts.”

With the five-game winning streak, the Warhawks have won seven of their last nine conference games, climbing from 12th (1-6) in the standings into a tie for third place at one point before the Troy loss dropped them back down to fifth.

The Warhawks have two games left on the regular season, against Arkansas Little-Rock tonight and March 3 against Arkansas State.

“I really don’t care about the conference standings right now,” Richard said. “The focus is to just keep playing the way we’re playing. We’ll keep preaching and working on the things that we’ve been doing for the last five weeks.”

In Conference - USA, with two games left, Coleby and the Hilltoppers control their own destiny as the season concludes.

The Hilltoppers sent its seniors out in dominant fashion with an 88-66 win over Old Dominion in their home finale as they improved to 22-7, 14-2 in conference play.

Coleby finished with 11 points and eight rebounds

“I think we are playing our best right now, everyone is trusting each other, we’re playing with a lot of confidence and we’re happy just to be out there to perform every night,” Coleby said. “We work together everyday, we communicate, we know where we are on the court, we just talk to each other through the game and we know where to find each other, it’s how we know how to play with each other.”

WKU scored the first six points of the game, built it to a 29-9 lead and never looked back. The Hilltoppers shot 59.3 per cent from the field – firing 55 per cent or better for the fifth straight game – and outscored the Monarchs 50-30 in the paint.

Coleby has thrived in his new surroundings as a graduate transfer with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Last season with the Kansas Jayhawks, he averaged 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds per game in his lone season in Lawrence after transferring from Ole Miss.. He was already set to spend the 2015-16 season on the sidelines as a transfer but he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during a light team workout in October 2015 and had to undergo a gruelling rehab process.

“I’ve talked about our seniors all year long. They’re incredible people, they always play great, they’re the kind of people that you want to be around and you want to coach,” Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury said.

“I told yall one thing Dwight would average more than 1.7 like he did at Kansas. I think he surpassed all of our expectations, the one thing I knew we were getting is a quality person and when you are trying to mix a whole new team together you better have good ingredients, meaning good people and that’s where it started.”

The Hilltoppers will travel to face No. 24 Middle Tennessee on Thursday with the C-USA title on the line as the Blue Raiders are one game ahead of WKU in the league standings.