The Piedmont College Men’s Basketball team has placed five student-athletes on the 2016-17 NABC Honors Court announced Tuesday by the National Basketball Coaches Association.
Juniors LANDRY ASSINESI and NICK RYAN along with seniors CHASE ENGLAND, TRAE GAINES,and PEYTON LUKEN were recognized for their academic excellence during the past season.
The organization’s honors court recognizes junior and senior student athletes who have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher at the end of the 2016-17 academic year. All three seniors that were honored for Piedmont were also on the listing a year ago as juniors.
LANDRY ASSINESI played in all 26 contests for the Lions in 2016-17 splitting time at point guard with brother KELLY ASSINESI. Landry was third on the team in assists this past season with 45 and posted the third best free throw percentage on the team making 73% of his shots from the line.
NICK RYAN played in all but three games this past season for Piedmont posting one of his best games against Toccoa Falls with eight points in 10 minutes on the court. Ryan protected the ball with the least turnovers on the team for players who totaled more than 100 mintues on the season.
CHASE ENGLAND was second on the team in scoring averaging 13.4 points per game while adding nearly six rebounds per game. The junior from Oakwood, Georgia started in all but one game of the season and was named to the Honorable Mention All-Conference listing.
TRAE GAINES was just behind England in average points per game with 12.5 points per contest while having a team-high 19 blocks during the season. Gaines started each contest of the year and shared the title of Piedmont’s Most Outstanding Male Senior Student Athlete with England as voted on by the coaches in the Piedmont Athletic Department.
PEYTON LUKEN averaged 9.3 points per game while starting each contest and led the team with a total of 52 3-pointers, nine more than the next Lion. Luken had his best performance behind the arc against Berry going 6-for-9 with 27 points, a season-high.
The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men’s basketball coaches. Get interactive on Twitter with @PiedmontLions and @NABC1927 as the NABC invites you to share the success of these student athletes using the hashtag #NABCHonorsCourt.
