|
Tuesday, March 02, 2010 by Eddie Anderson |
Print
Email
RSS
Share
The Sun Conference announced the winning of several awards for Ave Maria University.
Junior guard Erika Derks was named to the All Sun Conference First Team. The Slinger, Wisconsin native led the Lady Gyrenes with 10.62 points per game and amassed a total of 308 points on the season. Derks was a major contributor for the Lady Gyrenes who finished in fourth place in The Sun Conference with an 8-6 conference record. A fourth place finish would have allowed AMU to advance to post-season play but as a first year member of the conference they were not allowed to move on. Derks scored a season high 20 points in the January 24th 80-36 blowout win over Johnson and Wales University. She was able to score double digit points in 17 of 29 games.
Derks’ teammate, Emily Huber received two awards from The Sun Conference. Huber, a freshman, came to Ave Maria from Indianapolis, Indiana and helped guide her team to a fourth place finish. She was named to the All Sun Conference Second Team and earned The Sun Conference Freshman of the Year Award. The all-around athlete was second on the team in scoring with 10.21 ppg at the point guard position. She scored a season high 23 points against St. Thomas University on February 6th. Twice during the season, Huber dished out 9 assists; Clearwater Christian 1/19/10 and Palm Beach Atlantic 1/28/10. She averaged nearly 4 assists per game.
AMU’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach Bob Batson was voted the conference’s Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year after guiding the Lady Gyrenes to an 8-6 record and 17-13 overall record. His squad is the first program in Ave Maria athletics history to have a winning season. This feat was especially impressive considering the team had only one senior and one junior. The Lady Gyrenes were 5-5 overall heading into the Christmas break, and upon returning won 6 games in a row.
Men’s basketball player and Valrico, Florida native, Dylan Fugate was named to the All Sun Conference Second Team after leading the Gyrenes to fourth place finish in the conference. Like the women’s team, it was the Gyrenes’ first year as a member of the conference which kept them from advancing to the playoffs. The 6’5”, 200 pound Dylan Fugate led the Gyrenes in scoring from the forward position with 11.67 points per game. His scoring highlights include a 24 point game against Warner University 1/15/10 and a 23 point game against Truett-McConnell College 11/28/10. He reached double digits in 16 of 26 games and scored 17 points in a 84-82 upset road win over #22 nationally ranked Warner University on February 5th.
Head Coach Jamon Copeland did a fantastic job of getting his team prepared for one of the most difficult schedules in the conference. Copeland stated, “Arguably, I’m not sure if anybody in the country had a tougher schedule than us this year. Including exhibitions, eleven of our opponents were nationally ranked at the time we played them.” The team which was comprised of zero seniors, 3 juniors, 3 sophomores, and 8 freshmen finished 14-15 overall and 7-9 in the conference. The 7-9 record put them in fourth place behind 3 nationally ranked teams; #8 Embry-Riddle, #11 Northwood, and #26 Warner.
The season was highlighted by 79-76 win over then #10 nationally ranked NAIA Division I St. Xavier University. The young squad also topped #22 Warner University. The men’s season was capped by winning 6 of their last 8 games.
Copeland was pleased with his team’s effort this season and quoted, “with how young we were, it took us a while to figure out how hard you have to play every single possession to win college basketball games. Once we figured that out and started competing every possession, we became pretty tough to beat towards the end of the season. For being a first year program in such a tough league with as much youth as we had, I felt like we had a successful season.”
