With plenty of help from the officials, Doremus Bennerman scored 51 points and broke the NIT record for most points in the tournament.
Bennerman, a 5-foot-11 senior point guard, led Siena to a 92-79 victory over Kansas State in the NIT consolation game Wednesday night.Bennerman was impressive, but he wasn't exactly unstoppable from the field. He was 9-of-15 on field goals, including 6-of-8 on 3-pointers.
From the foul line, he was 27-of-30.
And many of those 30 foul shots appeared to be gifts from the officials for a player appearing in his last college game. Bennerman scored his last 19 points on foul shots after his defenders were whistled almost any time they guarded him closely late in the game.
"I felt 50 points was important to propel him into the forefront, because I feel he should be drafted. I thank Doremus for propelling Siena College into the limelight," Saints coach Mike Deane said.
Siena (25-8) tied a school record for victories in a season, and Bennerman's five-game total of 174 points broke the NIT record of 132 set by Reggie King of Alabama in 1979.
"If I wrote the script on my career, I would not have written this into it," said Bennerman, who also established school career marks for 3-pointers (228) and points in a season (858).
Askia Jones led Kansas State (20-14) with 31 points.