Belgrade native Nick Mayo, a junior forward on the Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball team, has been named to the 2017-2018 Lou Henson Award Preseason Watch List.
That award is presented annually to the nation’s top NCAA Division I mid-major player.
The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Mayo starred at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, averaging 24.4 points, 13.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 3.0 blocked shots and 1.8 steals per game as a senior to lead the Eagles to a 14-6 record and a berth in the 2015 Eastern Maine Class A semifinals.
Mayo subsequently was named the Maine Gatorade High School Player of the Year as well as a Bangor Daily News All-Maine first-team choice.
Mayo has been an All-Ohio Valley Conference first-team honoree during each of his first two years playing under head coach Dan McHale at Eastern Kentucky.
Last winter he ranked among the OVC leaders in scoring (fifth, 18.5 points per game), rebounding (12th, 6.5 per game) and blocked shots (third, 1.4 per game) as well as among the top 20 conference wide in assists, field-goal percentage, 3-point shooting percentage and free-throw percentage.
Mayo is one of three Ohio Valley Conference players named to the Henson watch list along with Belmont guard Austin Luke and Murray State guard Jonathan Stark.
Others on the list include four America East standouts: Senior guard Trae Bell-Haynes and sophomore forward Anthony Lamb of Vermont, junior guard Jarius Lyles of Maryland Baltimore County and junior guard David Nicholls of Albany.
Mayo is on pace to become one of EKU’s all-time greats. Last year, he became the first Colonel ever to reach 1,000 career points as a sophomore.
He enters this season having scored in double figures in 34 consecutive games dating back to his freshman year, and he is a career 43.1 percent 3-point shooter.
Mayo was named earlier this fall to the 2017-2018 Karl Malone Award Watch List, an award given annually to the nation’s top Division I power forward, and he also was voted Preseason All-OVC for the second consecutive year at the conference’s annual media day in October.
Mayo and EKU, whose roster also includes freshman guard Mason Cooper of Fairfield, open the season on Friday night at Rice.
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