TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- For the second time this season Florida State guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes is the ACC Rookie of the Week. A blue ribbon panel of voters who cover ACC basketball vote on the award. Rathan-Mayes tied a career high with 35 points against Miami. He has scoredi n double figures 21 times this season. Last week he averaged 23.5 points, 3.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1 steal in two games.
Mayes was named the ACC Co-Rookie of the Week on January 26 following his first 35-point performance against North Carolina. Rathan-Mayes is the fifth player in school history to earn ACC Rookie of the Week multiple times. He is the first since Solomon Alabi won the award twice during the 2008-09 season.
With his incredible 35-point performance against Miami on Wednesday night, freshman Rathan-Mayes became the first player in ACC history to score 35 or more points in multiple games during freshmen at an ACC school.
Rathan-Mayes tied his career high with 35 points against Miami as he scored an incredible 30 points in the final 4:38 of the game against the Hurricanes. During the final 4:38 of the game, he was 8 of 10 from the field, 6 of 8 from the 3-point line and 8-9 from the line (with one intentional miss). Rathan-Mayes and his teammates brought Florida State from a 60-44 deficit (-16) to within two in the last 10 seconds. Rathan-Mayes scored 26 consecutive points (by himself) from the 4:38 mark (his 3-point shot made the score 62-47) and a four-point play at the 1:30 mark made the score 73-70. He assisted on a Robbie Berwick 3-point shot at the 0:20 second mark to make the score 76-73, scored Florida State’s final four points of the game on three of four made free throws (he intentionally missed the final shot with the score 79-77). He was called for his fourth foul of the game at the 2:51 mark and was substituted in and out four times in the final 2:51. With four fouls and being substituted for on defense and offense he scored 16 points. He also added two rebounds in the final 4:38.
Rathan-Mayes closed the week as he scored 12 points to go along with three rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots against No. 15 Louisville.
Rathan-Mayes is the only player in the ACC who leads his team in scoring (14.8 ppg), assists (4.4 apg) and steals (1.1 spg). He is one of only two freshmen in the nation (also Melo Trimble of Maryland) who leads his team in the same three categories in his first season of college basketball.
Rathan-Mayes enters Saturday’s regular season finale against Pittsburgh with a Florida State freshman record 414 points and a Seminole record 14.8 points per game scoring average. He became the all-time leading freshman scorer in school history and tied his own record school record for points in a game by a freshman with 35 against the Hurricanes. He surpassed Seminole great and All-American Bob Sura who scored 380 points as a freshman during the 19910-92 season. Sura is Florida State’s all-time scoring leader with 2,130 points.
***FSU Athletics
