FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2008
Contact:  Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Interim Commissioner

Centre's Britt; Mason highlight 2007-08 All-SCAC Men's Basketball honors

CONWAY, Ark. - Centre College put together the first unbeaten conference season in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) history and the coaches rewarded the team’s history-making effort as senior guard Thomas Britt was selected the league’s Player-of-the-Year and head coach Greg Mason was named the SCAC Coach-of-the-Year.

In that same exclusive vote by the head coaches of the SCAC, first-year forward Todd Ward of Oglethorpe University was named the league’s Newcomer-of-the-Year and junior forward Charles Houston of Trinity University was named SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year.

Britt finished the regular season atop the SCAC in free-throw percentage (90.0%) and three-point field goal percentage (48.7%) and was second in field goal percentage (54.1%) – just .002 from becoming the first player in league history to finish the season atop all three categories. Britt averaged 15.6 points per game (seventh in the SCAC) and hit 2.38 three-point field goals per game (sixth in the SCAC). Time and again this season, Britt sank clutch shot after clutch shot for the Colonels – including quite possibly the biggest shot in the SCAC this season. Trailing by three points against then #18 Millsaps College, Britt nailed a jumper from long range with under one second to play to force overtime in Centre’s eventual 90-80 win.

Britt, a two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week, is the third consecutive Centre player to earn the league’s highest honor, following Reggie Magnusson in 2005-06 and Matt Nestheide a year ago.

Mason, in his ninth year with the Colonels, has a career record of 166-69 (through the end of the 2007-08 regular season) which represents the highest winning percentage (70.6%) in school history. It is also the highest winning percentage among all active SCAC men's basketball coaches. In addition to producing the first perfect conference mark in league history, Centre produced its second consecutive 20-win season but just the program’s third in the SCAC era. After only nine seasons at the helm, Mason is already in second place in school history for all-time wins.

Mason received 10 votes for Coach-of-the-Year, followed by Phil Ponder of Oglethorpe and Tim Wise of Millsaps with one vote each.

Ward joined the Oglethorpe squad after the Christmas break and made an immediate impact for the Petrels. Coming off the bench in all but nine of the 13 conference games he played, Ward averaged 13.2 points (16th in conference-only games) and 6.9 rebounds (ninth in conference-only games) per game while shooting 49.2 percent from the field to lead Oglethorpe – picked to finish seventh in the SCAC preseason poll – to the second seed in the East and a 10-4 conference mark.

Ward garnered seven votes for Newcomer-of-the-Year, followed by Aaron Parr of Birmingham-Southern College, who received three votes. Luke Caldarera of Trinity and Steve Lemasters of DePauw University received one vote each.

Trinity’s Houston was the top defender on the team that led the SCAC in both scoring defense (12th in the nation) and field goal percentage defense (10th in the nation) during the regular season. Houston, who leads the league in steals (2.0 spg) and is ninth in rebounding (6.6 rpg), has also been an offensive threat for the Tigers – averaging 9.5 points per game while shooting 45.8 percent from the field.

In a close vote, Houston was picked by five of the coaches as the league’s best defensive player, while Chris Sanders of Millsaps and Matt Nestheide of Centre received three votes each. Spencer Burke of Austin College received one vote.

As for the other members of the All-SCAC First Team, Britt is joined on the squad by his teammate, senior guard Matt Nestheide, as well as senior forward Edrick Montgomery of Millsaps, junior point guard Mike Moore of DePauw and junior forward Andrew King of Hendrix College.

Last year’s SCAC Player-of-the-Year, Nestheide sacrificed some of his offensive game to become more of a distributor and finished the regular season ranked second in the conference in assists – averaging 4.2 per game. He was also second in the league in assist to turnover ratio (2.33) while averaging 11.6 points per game. The SCAC Player-of-the-Week in Week 3, Nestheide was third in the conference in minutes played (33.42 per game), ninth in field goal percentage (49.5%) and 15th in free throw percentage (77.0%).

Montgomery, who was a two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week selection as well as a two-time selection to the D3hoops.com National Team of the Week for the Majors, ranked sixth in the SCAC in scoring (15.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (9.0 rpg) during the regular season. He was also 11th in field goal percentage (48.7%), 11th in steals (1.42 spg) and second in blocked shots (2.0 bpg). Montgomery, who will likely go over the 700-career rebound mark this weekend at the SCAC Tournament, has finished second in the league’s Player-of-the-Year voting the last two seasons.

DePauw’s Moore posted 161 assists during the regular season – the second-highest single-season total in SCAC history. He has led the league in assists each of his three seasons – the first player to lead the SCAC in assists for three consecutive years since Albert Johnson of Rhodes accomplished the feat from 1993-94 to 1995-96. He is already third all-time on the SCAC career assists list with 452. Moore is averaging 17.0 points per game (fourth in the SCAC) and is third in the league in assist to turnover ratio (1.94), fourth in three-pointers made per game (2.52) and sixth in steals (1.6 spg). A two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week, Moore is currently third in school history in career assists and fifth in three-pointers made.

King leads the SCAC in both scoring (19.7 ppg) and rebounding (10.7 rpg) and if he remains atop the league in both of those categories, he would become just the third player in SCAC history to accomplish the feat and first since Oglethorpe’s Russ Churchwell in 2003-04. King is also sixth in the conference in field goal percentage (50.5%) and 14th in free-throw percentage (71.3%). Just a junior, King will crack the league’s top 10 list for career rebounds at the SCAC Tournament this weekend. A two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week selection this season, King is the first Hendrix men’s player to earn back-to-back All-SCAC First Team honors since Jason Rhodes (1994-95 and 1995-96).