Madison named first-team all-WAC

DENVER - After collecting a Western Athletic Conference record five Player of the Week honors throughout the season, Idaho senior men's basketball player Stephen Madison was recognized with first-team all-WAC honors on Sunday.

Madison led the league in scoring with 19.9 points per game and ranked fourth in rebounding with 7.6 boards per game. He also ranked in the league's top 15 with a 48.0 field goal percentage (10th), 2.45 assists per game (13th), and a 74.4 free throw percentage (11th).

Madison's 21.9 points per game during WAC play were easily the best in the league, and he also ranked fifth in rebounding, seventh in steals, 12th in field goal percentage and 13th in free throw percentage in conference action.

Madison scored a career-high 42 points at Utah Valley on Feb. 15, the most points scored by a WAC player in a game this season, and third most by an Idaho player in program history. He also had games of 35 and 34 points, and totaled 14 games of 20 or more points.

The Portland, Ore., native is Idaho's all-time leader in games played, and ranks fourth in program history with 1,556 career points and 10th with 619 rebounds.

His 242 free throws attempted and 180 free throws made this season are Idaho records, and his 616 points this season are the fifth most in program history. Madison is just 30 points away from moving into second on Idaho's career scoring list.

New Mexico State's Daniel Mullings was voted the WAC Player of the Year by the league's head coaches, and rounding out the all-WAC first team were Grand Canyon's Killian Larson and Utah Valley's Ben Aird and Holton Hunsaker.

The all-WAC second team includes Issiah Grayson of Bakersfield, Quinton Pippen of Chicago State, Jerome Garrison of Grand Canyon, Tshilidzi Nephawe of New Mexico State and Isiah Umipig of Seattle U. Kansas City's Martez Harrison earned the WAC Freshman of the Year honor and Utah Valley coach Dick Hunsaker was the league's Coach of the Year.

Mullings, Garrison, Aly Ahmed (Bakersfield), Sim Bhullar (NM State) and Mitch Bruneel (Utah Valley) earned WAC all-defensive team honors while Harrison, Umipig, Daniel Alexander (Grand Canyon), DK Eldridge (NM State) and Zach Nelson (Utah Valley) were all-newcomer selections.

The WAC tournament begins Thursday at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, where the fifth-seeded Vandals will take on the fourth-seeded UMKC Kangaroos in quarterfinal action.