OU's Hunter, Clayton earn MAC men’s basketball postseason honors

Ohio University men's basketball senior guard Jaylin Hunter and junior forward AJ Clayton both earned a spot on the 2024 Mid-American Conference All-MAC Teams, the league announced (March 13). Hunter earned a spot on the All-MAC Second Team, while Clayton was named to the All-MAC Third Team. 
 
Hunter (Manchester, Conn.) earns a spot on the All-MAC Second Team after being named Honorable Mention last season. This season, Hunter led the Bobcats with 13.9 points and 5.1 assists per game. He also averaged 4.4 rebounds, while shooting 42.2 percent from the floor and 73.2 percent from the line. In MAC play, Hunter averaged 13.2 points, 4.9 assists and 4.7 rebounds a game. Through 18 conference games, Hunter shot 44.8 percent from the field, 29.6 percent from three and 72.5 percent from the line, while also grabbing 30 steals. 
 
Hunter finished the regular season with 21 double-digit scoring games, six 20-point games and led Ohio in assists in 26 games. He also finished the regular season as the MAC assists leader with 157 total assists and 5.1 on average per game, the MAC leader in assist/turnover ratio (2.4) and was named the MAC Player of the Week on Feb. 12. 

Nationally, Hunter ranks 66th in assist/turnover, 45th in assists and 44th in assists per game. Hunter scored a career-high 32 points against Ball State Feb. 6, and recorded his first career double double on Nov. 18 against Detroit Mercy, the same game that he scored his 1,000th career point. 
 
This is the first time that Clayton (Roseville, Ohio) has earned a spot on an All-MAC team. Clayton finished the season third on the Bobcats with 12.4 points a game and a team-leading 4.5 rebounds a game. He finished the regular season shooting 51.4 percent from the field, 33.7 percent from three and 82.1 percent from the line. He also averaged 1.8 blocks a game. In MAC play, Clayton averaged 12.8 points and 4.0 rebounds a game. He shot 47.6 percent from the field, 40.2 percent from the three and 80.0 percent from the line, while averaging 1.5 blocks a game. 
 
Clayton finished the season sixth in the MAC in field goal percentage, fourth in three-point field goal percentage and second in blocks and blocks per game. Nationally, Clayton ranks 50th in blocks and 51st in blocks per game. On the season. Clayton recorded 23 double figure scoring games, two 20-point games and led Ohio in scoring eight times during the season. 

Clayton matched his career-high 23 points twice during the season, once on Jan. 6 against NIU and again on March 5 at Buffalo. Also in that game against Buffalo, Clayton hit a career-high seven three pointers in 31 minutes on the court. 
 
Hunter, Clayton and the rest of the third-seeded Ohio men's basketball team open play at the 2024 MAC Tournament on Thursday, March 14 when Ohio takes on No. 6 Western Michigan in the quarterfinals. Tip-off is set for around 6:30 p.m. inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and can be seen on ESPN+.

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