Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Macon, Ga. - The Atlantic Sun Conference coaches have selected Florida Atlantic senior forward Mike Bell as the 2004-05 A-Sun Player-of-the-Year. Voting for all A-Sun honors was completed by the 11 conference head coaches. Gardner-Webb's Rick Scruggs won his first A-Sun Coach-of-the-Year award after leading the Bulldogs to a share of the A-Sun Regular Season Title and the league's top-seed in the upcoming championship. GWU guard Tim Jennings was named the A-Sun's Defensive Player-of-the-Year and Belmont's Justin Hare earned A-Sun Freshman-of-the-Year honors.

In earning A-Sun Player-of-the-Year honors, Bell (6-9, Sr., F, Bradley, Raleigh, N.C.) leads the conference in scoring (19.1 ppg) and rebounding (9.3 rpg) and is FAU's all-time leader in both categories. Bell earned A-Sun Second-Team All-Conference honors a year ago and was a three-time A-Sun Player-of-the-Week this season after racking up 14 double-doubles on the season. He is joined on the first team be fellow senior Marcus Brown (6-7, Sr., F, College Park, Ga.) who leads the Panthers in scoring (15.1 ppg) while shooting 46.7 percent (63-135) from the three-point range.

Also earning first team honors, which included two seniors, two juniors, and a sophomore, was Gardner-Webb's Brian Bender (6-6, Jr. F, Lawrenceville, Ga.), Mercer's Will Emerson (6-10, Jr., F, St. Mary's, Ga.) and Jacksonville's Haminn Quaintance (6-7, So., F, Sarasota, Fla.).

The Atlantic Sun Second Team All-Conference selections include Lipscomb's Brian Fisk, Gardner-Webb's Tim Jennings, UCF's Gary Johnson and Josh Peppers, and Stetson's Anthony Register.

Belmont's Justin Hare led a group of freshmen on the A-Sun All-Freshmen team as he averaged 10.6 points per game and tied or won games on six occasions for the Bruins. Joining Hare as the top freshmen in 2004-05 are teammate Will Peeples, Lipscomb's Eddie Ard, FAU's Tywain McTyer, and Campbell's Ruell Pringle.