St. John Fisher College’s Optimystik Kinard (Trinity-Pawling/South Ozone Park), a freshman on the men’s basketball team, has been named the College’s Male Athlete of the Week for the week ending January 1, 2012.
In a 2-0 week for the Cardinals, Kinard played a large role in Fisher earning the championship in the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa Tournament held on campus. Coming off the bench in the first round game against Westminster College, Kinard scored a game and career-high 20 points, bucketing 10 in each half, while grabbing eight rebounds and going a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. The Cardinals won 85-62 to advance to the championship game behind Kinard’s career performance, Jordan Gettings (Catholic Central/Cohoes) 17 points to reach 1,000 for his career and Jason Norsen’s (Frontier/Hamburg) near triple-double, scoring 18 points, grabbing 16 caroms and swatting away 9 shots.
Against Dickinson College the freshman forward came back with 16 points and four rebounds while again going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Fisher defeated the Red Devils 78-70 to retain its Woodcliff Hotel and Spa Tournament title.
Kinard, in a sixth man role, is in the top five in nearly every category for the Cardinals, including first in free-throw percentage (88.2%, 15-for-17, Min. 10 attempts) second in rebounding (4.5/game) and second in steals (0.8/game).
