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Nike Sibande, two other RedHawks receive MAC Basketball awards

The Miami Student
The Miami Student

Freshman guard Nike Sibande was named the 2018 MAC Freshman of the Year on Tuesday. Sibande and two other RedHawks were chosen for All-MAC teams on Monday.

"To be MAC freshman of the year, it means a lot," Sibande said in a statement. "It's a blessing to me, my family, coaches, my teammates, everybody."

Miami's leading and only double-digit scorer, the Indianapolis native averaged 14.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. He was the only RedHawk to start all 32 of Miami's games this season.

Sibande beat out Bowling Green's Justin Turner and Ohio's Teyvion Kirk for the award.

In addition to earning MAC Freshman of the Year, Sibande was named to the Honorable Mention All-MAC team and to the All-MAC Freshman Team.

Junior guard Darrian Ringo was chosen to the All-MAC Third Team and All-MAC Defensive Team, while freshman forward Dalonte Brown joined Sibande on the All-MAC Freshman Team.

Ringo is Miami's second leading scorer with 9.5 points per game. He's dished out an average of 7.1 assists per game -- good enough for seventh on NCAA leaderboards. Ringo also shattered Miami's single-season assist record last week against Kent State, passing Eddie Schilling's 1985 record of 214. He currently has 227 assists on the year.

Brown averages 8.3 points per game and is second on the RedHawks with 5.4 rebounds per contest.

All three are first-year RedHawks.

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