When UCO forward Dauntae Williams arrived in Bartlesville on Tuesday of this week, it wasn’t long before he was accepting his LSC North Offensive Player of the Year award, given out at the LSC Championship banquet.
He’ll leave the town nearly a week later with more hardware after being named LSC Championship MVP in helping the Bronchos to three wins, including a convincing 68-52 win over Tarleton State.
After a quarterfinal win Thursday afternoon, UCO head coach Terry Evans said his team would have to give the star forward plenty of help in order to complete the three-game journey to win the LSC Championship.
While that definitely happened, as guys like Brent Friday and Victor Driver came up big, along with brothers Tucker Phillips and Tyler Phillips, in the end, Williams still lifted his team in all areas.
In claiming the MVP, Williams scored 56 points – second only to Tarleton State’s Corin Henry (69 points), but averaged 6.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists as well. Williams shot .486 from the field – hitting 17 of 35 attempts. He also led all players with seven assists in the tournament.
“Dauntae was our leader all year long and he deserves everything he gets,” Evans said. “He’s a great player for us and I’m proud of what he’s been able to do this year.”
Here is the rest of the 2011 all-tournament team:
Corin Henry, Tarleton State – The senior guard, who was named LSC South Defensive Player of the Year, was actually the only consistent offensive scorer for the Texans during the weekend. Henry led all scorers in Bartlesville with 69 points. Henry tied a career-high with 29 points against Midwestern State on Saturday and had 19 in the championship game – the only TSU player in double figures against UCO.
Victor Driver, UCO – In three games off the bench, Driver proved to be a scoring threat for the Bronchos, including a 25-point outburst against Eastern New Mexico on Thursday, which more than doubled his career high. Driver scored in double figures in all three games.
Brent Friday, UCO – After playing more of a supporting role in the first two games, Friday led the Bronchos with 16 points in Sunday’s championship game over Tarleton State. Friday finished the weekend averaging 13.7 points.
Chris Hagan, MSU – Despite suffering two different ankle injuries in the two games, Hagan managed to score 26 points in Thursday’s win over Texas A&M-Commerce and then 21 against Tarleton State on Saturday. Hagan scored 19 of those points in the first half against the Texans.
LaDarius Hall, WTAMU – Hall averaged 14.5 points per game in two contests, including 19 in the quarterfinal win over Cameron. Hall also had a game-tying basket in regulation during WT’s double-overtime loss to Central Oklahoma in the quarterfinals.