NW Ohio natives net Big Ten honors this week

2/10/2014

It was another Big Ten awards sweep for Northwest Ohio, with Ohio State’s Aaron Craft and Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes claiming the league’s top basketball honors this week.

Craft, a Liberty-Benton graduate, was named Big Ten player of the week while Hayes, a Whitmer graduate, was the top freshman. The pair also swept the awards in early January.

Craft carried the Buckeyes at Iowa, where he became the first Big Ten player since Charlie Bell of Michigan State in 2001 to have 17 points, six assists, and six steals in a single game. Hayes, one of the top contenders for league freshman of the year, averaged 14.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in leading No. 21 Wisconsin to wins over Illinois and No. 9 Michigan State.