Today: Mar 28, 2024

Handful of Owls take home awards

Sam TapperSports Writer

The 2020 basketball season may be over on campus, but players on both the men’s and women’s teams took home some personal year-end hardware to cap off the season.

For the women, their senior point guard Imani Wheeler, after scoring her 1,000th point on a pair of free throws in the season finale at Adelphi, was named the NE10 Conference’s 2020 Defensive Player of the Year. In addition, Wheeler collected 3.0 steals per game, good for number one in the conference.

In total, Wheeler stole the ball 85 times on defense this season, also ranking first in the NE10. On the NCAA level, Wheeler’s ranked eighth in the country, and her 3.0 steals per game puts her at 10th in the nation among Division II players.

In addition to the senior guard, forward Alexa Kellner was named to the NE10 All-Rookie team. Kellner averaged 9.4 points per game and a solid 5.5 rebounds per game operating both outside and down low for coach Kate Lynch.

Kellner showed off her sharpshooting this season, as she averaged two made threes per game ranking first in the NE10. She is also the first freshman to score 200 in a season since Taylor McLaughlin in 2014.

On the men’s side, freshman, guard Lyron Bennett, also made the NE10 All-Rookie team. Bennett tabbed 10.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in his first season, earning NE10 Rookie of the Week multiple times.

Bennett ranked first among freshmen in the conference in assists per game and fourth in points and rebounds per game as well as shooting percentage.

Finally, senior forward Taurus Adams II, was named to the AllConference Third Team. Adams had his best season at Southern averaging 16.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Adams ranked in the top 10 in the conference in points per game and tied for third in rebounds per game.

Nationally, Adams ranked eighth in the NCAA for offensive rebounds per game at 3.8 per contest. Adams scored in doubledigits 20 times in 23 games and was the first since former teammate Jerry Luckett Jr. to record 350 points and 200 rebounds in a season.

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