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20120302_oru_basketball_summit_league

ORU claims three top awards from Summit League

Via ORU Athletics and Summit League (http://www.ORUAthletics.com)

ORU men's basketballOral Roberts' Dominique Morrison was selected as The Summit League Men's Basketball Player of the Year in a vote of the league's 10 head coaches, sports information directors and select media members as announced Thursday. His honor marked one of three individual accolades for the regular season champion Golden Eagles.

ORU's Steven Roundtree earned the league's Sixth Man of the Year award and Scott Sutton was named Coach of the Year while Western Illinois' Ceola Clark III collected the Defensive Player of the Year honor and North Dakota State's Lawrence Alexander earned Newcomer of the Year.

Morrison, ORU's first Player of the Year selection since 2006-07, ranked second in the league in scoring with 22.2 points per league game. He also ranked second in minutes played per game (36.9) and third in both free throw percentage (.867) and three-point field goal percentage (.520). Morrison scored 20 or more points in 12 of 18 league games, including a pair of 30-point outings. He ranks 14th nationally in scoring (20.3 ppg overall) and fourth among the NCAA's active career scoring leaders (2,034 career points).

Roundtree, who earned the Newcomer of the Year award last season, ranked second in The Summit League for field goal percentage (.632) and averaged 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while coming off the bench in 17-of-18 league contests.

Sutton collected his third Summit League Coach of the Year accolade after leading the Golden Eagles to a 17-1 league record as outright regular season champions. His squad tied the record for Summit League wins (17) and winning percentage (.944). ORU also tied the school's highest Division I win total (26) under his guidance.

Clark became the first men's player in Summit League history to earn two Defensive Player of the Year awards during a career, having also achieved the honor in 2009-10. He lead the league with 38.1 minutes played per game and tied for third with 1.7 steals per contest.

Alexander was The Summit League's highest scoring newcomer at 13.8 points per game and ranked fourth overall with 4.6 assists per game.

Joining Morrison as first team All-Summit selections are four of the top five Summit League scoring leaders in Oakland's Reggie Hamilton, the leader at 26.0 ppg, IPFW's Frank Gaines, third at 21.6 ppg, IUPUI's Alex Young, fourth at 21.3 ppg, and South Dakota State's Nate Wolters, fifth at 21.2 ppg. Hamilton (6.2) and Wolters (5.7) also ranked 1-2 in the league in assists per game. North Dakota State's leading scorer and rebounder, Taylor Braun (17.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg), also earned first team accolades.

Clark headlined a second team that also featured ORU's Michael Craion (11.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg), South Dakota State's Jordan Dykstra (13.9 ppg, league-best .545 three-point field goal percentage), Southern Utah's Jackson Stevenett (16.2 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and South Dakota's Charlie Westbrook (20.1 ppg).

Receiving honorable mention are Roundtree, Oakland's Travis Bader (17.1 ppg and league-best 3.8 three-point field goals per game), UMKC's Reggie Chamberlain (17.9 ppg), ORU's Warren Niles (12.7 ppg) and Western Illinois' Terell Parks (12.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg).

In addition to Alexander and Parks, the all-newcomer team consists of IUPUI's Ian Chiles (11.3 ppg), Western Illinois' Obi Emegano (13.4 ppg) and Oakland's Corey Petros (8.8 ppg).

The Summit League Tournament begins Saturday, March 3 at the Sioux Falls Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D., and will be televised on Midco Sports Network and Fox College Sports. Eight teams will vie for the NCAA automatic bid, which goes to the winner of the championship game on Tuesday, March 6 on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. (CT).

2011-12 LEAGUE AWARDS
FIRST TEAM
Name, School // Pos. // Yr.
Taylor Braun, North Dakota State // G // So.
Frank Gaines, IPFW // G // Jr.
Reggie Hamilton, Oakland // G // Sr.
Dominique Morrison, Oral Roberts // F // Sr.
Nate Wolters, South Dakota State // G // Jr.
Alex Young, IUPUI // F // Sr.

SECOND TEAM
Ceola Clark III, Western Illinois // G // Sr.
Michael Craion, Oral Roberts // F // Sr.
Jordan Dykstra, South Dakota State // F // So.
Jackson Stevenett, Southern Utah // F // Jr.
Charlie Westbrook, South Dakota // G // Sr.

HONORABLE MENTION
Travis Bader, Oakland // G // So.
Reggie Chamberlain, UMKC // G // Sr.
Warren Niles, Oral Roberts // G // So.
Terell Parks, Western Illinois // F/C // Jr.
Steven Roundtree, Oral Roberts // F // So.

ALL-NEWCOMER
Lawrence Alexander, North Dakota State // G // Fr.
Ian Chiles, IUPUI // G // So.
Obi Emegano, Western Illinois // F // Fr.
Terell Parks, Western Illinois // F/C // Jr.
Corey Petros, Oakland // C/F // R-Fr.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Dominique Morrison, Oral Roberts

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Lawrence Alexander, North Dakota State

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Ceola Clark III, Western Illinois

SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
Steven Roundtree, Oral Roberts

COACH OF THE YEAR
Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts

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