Jaren Lewis Crowned Men’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year
FRISCO, Texas – Abilene Christian's Jaren Lewis is the 2018-19 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday along with its all-academic teams. All yearly awards are presented by
Ready Nutrition.
A First-Team Academic All-Southland selection for the third time in his career, Lewis touts a 3.36 GPA in business management and is coming off an all-conference second team selection, finishing top-10 in the league in steals (53), steals per game (1.6), field goal percentage (.462), free throw percentage (.740) and rebounds (203). He was also 13th in scoring at 13.7 points per game and is just the fourth in program history to record at least 1,500 career points and 800 career rebounds. He is ACU's all-time Division I leader in both points (1,543) and rebounds (814).
The Orlando, Fla., native played a vital role in the Wildcats' six-game turnaround in conference play from last season as ACU claimed the No. 2 seed and a double-bye in the Southland Conference Tournament with a 14-4 record. Behind Lewis' tournament MVP performance, the Wildcats defeated Southeastern Louisiana in the semifinals and New Orleans in the title game to secure the school's first-ever league title and NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament berth.
The Wildcats are one of three teams to garner two picks to the all-academic teams with Hayden Farquhar being voted on the second team. Houston Baptist's Oliver Lynch-Daniels was named to the first team while Ian DuBose appears on the second team. New Orleans had a pair of second-team honorees in Ezekiel Charles and Scott Plaisance Jr.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior Kareem South joins Lewis as the only repeat selections on this year's team as the Islander rounds out the second team.
Nicholls' graduate transfer Jeremiah Jefferson, Central Arkansas' Hayden Koval and Northwestern State's Ishmael Lane are automatic selections on the first team.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member universities, voted for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
CoSIDA Academic All-District/All-American selections and First Team All-Conference athletes who meet all-academic nomination criteria are automatically named First Team All-Academic.
2018-19 Southland Conference Men's Basketball All-Academic Teams
| First Team |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Name |
University |
Class |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Jaren Lewis^3 |
Abilene Christian |
Sr. |
Orlando, Fla. |
3.36 |
Business Management |
| Jeremiah Jefferson# |
Nicholls |
Gr. |
Dallas, Texas |
4.00 |
Higher Education Leadership |
| Hayden Koval# |
Central Arkansas |
So. |
Prosper, Texas |
3.92 |
Accounting |
| Ishmael Lane1 |
Northwestern State |
Sr. |
Port Allen, La. |
3.07 |
Communications |
| Oliver Lynch-Daniels# |
Houston Baptist |
So. |
Chapel Hill, N.C. |
4.00 |
Wellness Management |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Second Team
Name |
University |
Class |
Hometown |
GPA |
Major |
| Ezekiel Charles |
New Orleans |
Sr. |
Brooklyn, N.Y. |
3.26 |
Psychology |
| Ian DuBose |
Houston Baptist |
So. |
Durham, N.C. |
3.72 |
Wellness Management |
| Hayden Farquhar |
Abilene Christian |
Sr. |
Throckmorton, Texas |
3.43 |
Accounting |
| Scott Plaisance Jr. |
New Orleans |
Sr. |
Marrero, La. |
3.47 |
Human Performance & Health Promotion |
| Kareem South2 |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Sr. |
Toronto, Ontario |
3.37 |
Biomedical Science |
^2018-19 Southland Men's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year
1All-Conference First Team selection
2Two-time all-academic selection
3Three-time all-academic selection
#CoSIDA Academic All-District