Dec. 8, 2008

* Patriot League Release (12-8-08)

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- For the second straight week, Navy senior guard Kaleo Kina was voted as the Patriot League's Anaconda men's basketball Player of the Week for his role in three Navy contests last week.

Kina opened the week by scoring 29 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field and 11-of-15 from the line to go along with seven rebounds in Navy's 78-65 victory over Texas-San Antonio on Tuesday. Kina's effort was part of a 71.4 percent shooting performance by the Mids, the nation's best single-game percentage this year.

Kina then led the Mids to their seventh win in a row on Friday, as he scored 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting while hitting all nine of his foul shots in a 76-65 victory at Penn. The win was Navy's first in the Palestra against Penn in 16 games, dating back 49 years to the day (Dec. 5, 1959).

Navy's win streak came to an end with a 79-70 loss to Virginia Tech on Sunday in the BB & T Classic in Washington, D.C., but Kina turned in another solid outing in defeat. He scored 18 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, dished out six assists and notched three steals in the contest. It was the third double-double of his career.

For the week, Kina averaged 25.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.3 apg and 1.3 spg in the three games. He shot 49.0 percent from the field and 79.3 percent from the foul line. In addition, Kina has shot 64 free throws so far this year, ranking ninth in the country in that category.

Over the last six games, Kina is averaging 23.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg and 3.2 apg, helping Navy to a 5-1 record during that span and a 7-2 overall record. Prior to Sunday's loss to Virginia Tech, Navy had been 7-1, posting its best start since 1983-84 (8-0).

During the week, Kina became the seventh player in Patriot League history to record 1,000 points, 300 assists and 150 steals in his career.

Kina leads all active Patriot League players in scoring and steals, and is second in assists. He leads the League with 20.2 points per game this season, and has scored in double figures in every game this year. Kina becomes the first Navy student-athlete to win back-to-back Player of the Week honors since Skip Victor did it in the 1998-99 season.

The Mids will travel to Emmitsburg, Md., for a Tuesday night battle with Mount St. Mary's. The game will start at 7:00 pm and will be broadcast on the airwaves on WNAV (1430 AM / www.WNAV.com).

# GO NAVY #