Northwest Christian’s Austin Kuemper Selected as CCC Preseason Player of the Year
LA GRANDE, Ore. – After a vote by the conference coaches, Northwest Christian’s Austin Kuemper landed in the top spot, earning the 2015-16 Cascade Collegiate Conference Preseason Player of the Year title, the conference office announced.
Kuemper, a senior forward from Portland, Ore., will lead a team that was picked to finish second in the CCC standings this year after coming off a fifth place finish a year ago with a 17-11 record. Kuemper record 14.9 points a game last year along with 6.6 rebounds. NCU landed one other player on the list in Javonte Byrd who tallied just over 12 points a game last year.
Six different schools had two players make the preseason all-conference team in NCU, Eastern Oregon, Southern Oregon, Warner Pacific, Corban and Northwest.
Eastern’s Bryan McGriff finished the 2014-15 campaign as the conference’s leading scorer, averaging 22.1 points per game and added 9.6 rebounds.
SOU’s Jordan West helped the Raiders to a berth in the NAIA National Tournament last season, averaging just over 15 points with 5.6 rebound while Warner Pacific’s Earl Jones tallied 15.4 points.
Oregon Tech, College of Idaho and The Evergreen State College each had one selection to complete the preseason all-conference team.
2015-16 CCC Preseason All-Conference Team
| Name |
Institution |
|
Pos. |
Class |
PPG |
RPG |
Hometown |
| ^Austin Kuemper |
Northwest Christian |
|
F |
SR |
14.9 |
6.6 |
Portland, Ore. |
| Lavar Moore |
Oregon Tech |
|
G |
SR |
22.0 |
2.6 |
Waterbury, Conn. |
| Bryan McGriff |
Eastern Oregon |
|
F |
SR |
22.1 |
9.6 |
Las Vegas, Nev. |
| Jordan West |
Southern Oregon |
|
F |
SR |
15.1 |
5.6 |
Gymea Bay, Australia |
| Earl Jones |
Warner Pacific |
|
G |
SR |
15.4 |
2.3 |
Henderson, Nev. |
| Cyrus Ward |
Corban |
|
F |
SR |
15.2 |
8.9 |
Gig Harbor, Wash. |
| Javonte Byrd |
Northwest Christian |
|
G |
SR |
12.4 |
2.7 |
San Diego, Calif. |
| Joey Nebeker |
College of Idaho |
|
F |
JR |
9.9 |
5.1 |
Melba, Idaho |
| Dak Shagren |
Northwest |
|
G |
SR |
14.6 |
3.7 |
Custer, Wash. |
| Ben DeSaulnier |
Southern Oregon |
|
G |
SO |
9.8 |
2.3 |
Philomath, Ore. |
| +Taylor Young |
Warner Pacific |
|
G |
SR |
16.1 |
3.1 |
Hawthorne, Calif. |
| Case Rada |
Eastern Oregon |
|
G |
SR |
12.9 |
3.3 |
Burbank, Wash. |
| AJ Monterossi |
Corban |
|
G |
SO |
10.1 |
1.9 |
Beaverton, Ore. |
| +Ben Tucakovic |
Northwest |
|
F |
JR |
16.9 |
7.9 |
Boise, Idaho |
| Alix Hernandez |
Evergreen |
|
G |
JR |
12.0 |
6.4 |
Yakima, Wash. |
|
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^indicates Preseason Player of the Year; +indicates CCC newcomer; *indicates statistics from previous school, RS indicates did not play in 2014-15, NS indicates no stats available in category