Redmen basketball award winners announced for 2009-10 campaign
MONTREAL, Que. - Matt Thornhill of Ile-Bizard, Que., has been named most valuable player of the McGill men's basketball team for the 2009-10 season. The team's other major awards went to Winn Clark (most outstanding defensive player) of Mission Hills, Kansas, Nicholas Nishikawa (most improved player) of Manotick, Ont., and Montreal native Olivier Bouchard (rookie of the year).
Thornhill, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound guard, earned CIS all-Canadian second team status, becoming the first McGill player to attain that honour since 2002. A 23-year-old finance senior who was the Quebec conference player of the year, Thornhill led the league in scoring with an 18.3 points-per-game average. He ranked second among conference leaders in three-point shooting (45.8 per cent), and third in free-throw percentage (79.3%). Thornhill was third among league leaders in minutes played (31.3 avg.), sixth in defensive rebounds (3.8 avg.), ninth in field-goal shooting (45.9%) and 12th in both rebounding (4.9 avg.) and steals (1.2 avg.).
Clark, a 6-foot-3, 174-pound freshman guard, came off the bench to average 19.9 minutes of court-time and was third on the team in defensive rebounds, with 38 of his 46 boards occurring in the back-court. The 19-year-old kinesiology major was also fourth on the team in assists (18) and fifth in steals (12). He averaged 4.3 points per game, shot 33.3 from the field and 37.0 from three-point range.
Nishikawa, a sophomore forward who measures 6-foot-5 and 202-pounds, improved significantly over the campaign, earning 10 starts in 16 regular-season contests and averaging 23.1 minutes of playing time. The 20-year-old biology major led the team in both rebounding (5.6 avg.) and blocked shots (9). He ranked fourth on the Redmen in both steals (14) and assists (18), while averaging 4.1 points per game, shooting 35.9 from the floor and 69.6 from the free-throw line.
Bouchard, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound point-guard, merited CIS all-rookie honours and led the team with 56 assists in 15 games to go along with 18 steals, one shy of the team lead. The 20-year-old management freshman averaged 9.9 points 2.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game and drained a team-leading 79.6% of his free throws. He shot 39.8 from the floor and 34.8 from beyond the three-point line.
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SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation, Room 225 B
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)