Tigers Honored: Howard "Coach of the Year"; Three Players Earn ASC Awards

BASKETBALL (W): RICHARDSON, Texas (2/27/13) – Reaching their goal of making the American Southwest Conference tournament under first year head coach Dustin Howard, East Texas Baptist University was awarded for their strong play in women’s basketball in 2012-13 as three players were named to the All-ASC East team. Mary Slaughter, April Leonard, and Brandace Latin earned awards while Howard was named co-coach of the year.

Howard guided ETBU to 16 wins in his first season as the head coach which is the most since the 2005-06 season when they won 22 game. ETBU won five of their last six regular season games to qualify for the ASC Tournament as the #4 seed from the east. In those six games, ETBU won their final three on the road knocking off then #18 Louisiana College, breaking their three-year home game winning streak, and then had a buzzer beating shot to defeat Mississippi College to take the last spot in the tournament. The win over Louisiana College was ETBU’s first over a ranked opponent since 2005.

Leonard gained a majority of the awards for ETBU being named the ASC East’s "Freshman of the Year”, making the ASC East’s All-Freshman team, and then being voted All-ASC East honorable mention. She finished second on the team in scoring at 10.1 points per game and led the team with 65 steals. She also led the team with 26 made three-pointers and added 46 assists. In the ASC, she was third in steals (2.5 per game), 14th in three-point field goals made, and 21st in scoring. She also gained the ASC East player of the week award, twice, this year.

Given All-ASC East first-team honors was senior Mary Slaughter. She led ETBU in scoring (13.3 points per game) and rebounding (8.5 per game). She shot 51 percent from the floor and had 50 blocks on the year. In the ASC Tournament game vs. Howard Payne, she scored her 1,000th point at ETBU and finishes third all-time in rebounding. In the ASC, she was first in blocks (1.9 per game), fourth in rebounding, fifth in field goal percentage (.516), and ninth in scoring. As a freshmen in 2005, she was named the ASC East’s Freshman of the year and to the All-ASC honorable mention. This year, she was voted onto the D3Hoops.com National Team of the Week once and was also the ASC East Player of the Week.

Latin rounds out the awards being named honorable mention on the east side. She was fourth on the team in scoring at 8.9 points per game and had 5.5 rebounds per game. She finished her career at ETBU with 921 points as a four-year player.

ETBU finished the year with a 16-10 record and was 11-8 in the ASC East making the ASC Tournament.

Four Players Earn All-ASC East Awards

BASKETBALL (M): RICHARDSON, Texas (2/27/13) – Four East Texas Baptist University men’s basketball players were honored for their play in 2012-13 by the American Southwest Conference on Tuesday. Jaron Joseph, Erby Thompson, Junior Mitchell, and Clavoisiea Dupree all earned an award.

For the second year in a row Joseph has been voted onto the east’s division second team. He led ETBU with 13.2 points per game and shot 47 percent from the floor. In the ASC, he was 14th in scoring. He finished the year with 34 assists, 23 steals, 100 rebounds (4.0 per game), and shot 60 percent from the foul line. He was a four-year player for head coach Bert West and the only senior on the team. He finished his career with 834 points and helped ETBU to three straight ASC Tournament appearances from 2009-2012.

Thompson and Mitchell were both named to the All-ASC East honorable mention team receiving awards for the first time in their career. Thompson averaged 7.9 points per game and had 44 assists and 18 steals. He shot 43 percent from three-point range making 37 shots. He was fifth in the ASC in three-point field goal percentage and 12th in three-pointer made (1.5 per game). Mitchell was second on the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game and led the team with 90 assists. He averaged 4.2 rebounds per game and shot 42 percent from the floor. He was sixth in the ASC in assists (3.6 per game).

Dupree only played the spring semester but made an impact in the ASC. In just 14 games played, He had 27 blocks and averaged 5.4 rebounds per game. He averaged 3.9 points per game and shot 40 percent from the floor.

ETBU finished the year at 9-16 and were 5-14 in the ASC East.

ETBU Jumps into NFCA Top 25

SOFTBALL: LOUISVILLE, Ky. (2/27/13) – Only four games into the young 2013 season, East Texas Baptist University has put themselves in the lime light breaking into the NFCA Top 25. In the first regular season poll, ETBU squeaked in at 25th with a 4-0 record.

"It is always an honor to be recognized as one of the top 25 teams in the country, however, it does not solidify anything,” says head coach Janae Shirley. "This week’s ranking is based off of our first four games, so our young team still has to prove that they are worthy of being one of the top 25 teams in the nation. There are a lot of games to play and still a lot of work to do.”

ETBU is off to a 4-0 start after sweeps of both Austin College and Trinity University. The schedule only gets tougher for ETBU as they travel to Farmers Branch, Texas, for the ASC Crossover Tournament this weekend and then to the AFCA Top 25 Tournament in Georgia , March 8-10.

The American Southwest Conference had two other teams in the top 25 in #4 Texas-Tyler and #22 Louisiana College.