All-American

Bliznyuk, Spight, Harding earn Lou Henson mid-major All-American honors

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OGDEN, Utah (March 30, 2018) – A total of three Big Sky Conference men’s basketball student-athletes were named to the 2017-18 Lou Henson All-America Team highlighting the nation’s top mid-major players with Eastern Washington’s Bogdan Bliznyuk, Northern Colorado’s Andre Spight and Weber State’s Jerrick Harding earning accolades.

The Lou Henson National Player of the Year Award will be announced Monday, Apr. 2 in San Antonio, the site of the NCAA Division I Final Four.

Eastern Washington forward Bogdan Bliznyuk (32) and head coach Shantay Legans/by Brooks Nuanez

Bliznyuk closed out an impressive four-year playing career with the Eagles two weeks ago, being named an AP All-America Honorable Mention selection on Tuesday. Bliznyuk set the Big Sky Conference all-time career scoring record with 2,169 points on Mar. 9, surpassing a 24-year record of 2,102 points set by Idaho’s Orlando Lightfoot (1991-94).

He was named the league’s most valuable player after averaging 21.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Bliznyuk was the lone player in the league to rank in the top five in points (22.2), rebounds (7.6) and assists (4.8) during conference play, being named the conference’s player of the week five times.

On Mar. 3, Bliznyuk snapped a 17-year NCAA Division I single-season record with his 74th consecutive made free throw in a win over Northern Arizona in the regular season finale. His streak reached 77-straight makes from Dec. 31 to Mar. 8, shooting 90.2 percent (166-of-184) on the season and 98.7 percent (78-of-79) during Big Sky play.

Bliznyuk played in his 138th and final collegiate game on Mar. 13 in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) at Utah Valley. Against the Wolverines, Bliznyuk broke the EWU single-season scoring record with a three-pointer on the final shot of his career with 20 seconds remaining. His new record of 741 points sits sixth in the Big Sky single-season record books.

Harding and Spight joined Bliznyuk as unanimous All-Big Sky First Team selections this season. Harding ranked second in the league and 15th in the nation in scoring with 22.0 points per game while shooting at a 53.0 percentage from the guard position in his second collegiate season. He ranked third in the nation in scoring among freshmen and sophomores.

Weber State guard Jerrick Harding (10)/by Brooks Nuanez

In the regular season finale at Montana State on Mar. 3, Harding notched a Big Sky season-best 46-point performance breaking a 41-year-old school record and notching the 10th-best scoring performance in league history.

Spight currently leads the league with 22.5 points for 11th in the country, carrying Northern Colorado into the CIT Championship game on Friday against Illinois-Chicago as the Bears look to capture the Big Sky’s first postseason title in Greeley. The senior guard comes into Friday’s game with 832 points on the season, 14 points away from breaking a 52-year Big Sky scoring record. His 125 three-pointers on the season currently rank third in the single-season record books, seven away from tying the league record.

Spight was tabbed the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year this season, averaging a league-best 3.4 three-pointers per game while dishing out 3.6 assists per contest. He has totaled a league-high 24 20-point games on the year with eight 30-point performances and three 40-point games.

All three players were also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 6 Team earlier this month.

2017-18 LOU HENSON ALL-AMERICA TEAM

Trae Bell-Haynes 6-2 Sr. Vermont
Bogdan Bliznyuk 6-6 Sr. Eastern Washington
Desonta Bradford 6-4 Sr. East Tennessee State
Keith Braxton 6-4 So. Saint Francis (PA)
Tookie Brown 5-11 Jr. Georgia Southern
Joe Chealey 6-4 Sr. Charleston
Chris Clemons 5-9 Jr. Campbell
Clayton Custer 6-1 Jr. Loyola Chicago
Mike Daum 6-9 Jr. South Dakota State
Tre-Shaun Fletcher 6-7 Sr. Toledo
Blake Francis 6-0 So. Wagner
Jerrick Harding 6-1 So. Weber State
Brandon Goodwin 6-2 Sr. Florida Gulf Coast
Max Heidegger 6-2 So. UC Santa Barbara
Kevin Hervey 6-9 Sr. UT Arlington
Jordan Howard 5-11 Sr. Central Arkansas
John Konchar 6-5 Jr. Fort Wayne
Nathan Knight 6-10 So. William & Mary
Jock Landale 6-11 Sr. Saint Mary’s
Zach Lofton 6-4 Sr. New Mexico State
Jairus Lyles 6-2 Sr. UMBC
Fletcher Magee 6-4 Jr.. Wofford
CJ Massinburg 6-3 Jr. Buffalo
Garrison Mathews 6-5 Jr. Lipscomb
Drew McDonald 6-7 Jr. Northern Kentucky
Matt Mooney 6-3 Jr. South Dakota
Matt Morgan 6-2 Jr. Cornell
Kendrick Nunn 6-3 Sr. Oakland
Vasa Pusica 6-5 Jr. Northeastern
Grant Riller 6-3 So. Charleston
Junior Robinson 5-5 Sr. Mount St. Mary’s
Devin Sibley 6-2 Sr. Furman
D’Marcus Simonds 6-3 So. Georgia State
Andre Spight 6-3 Sr. Northern Colorado
Jonathan Stark 6-0 Sr. Murray State
Zach Thomas 6-7 Sr. Bucknell
James Thompson IV 6-10 Jr. Eastern Michigan
Seth Towns 6-7 So. Harvard
Reed Timmer 6-1 Sr. Drake
Bryce Washington 6-6 Sr. Louisiana

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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