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Hilliard, Moss named top players
Lut Williams
BCSP Editor
Anthony Hilliard and Shantrell Moss have a lot in common.
Hillard, a senior swingman at Elizabeth City State is listed at a generous 6-foot, 4-inches tall. He's hardly that.
Moss, a senior who also swung between guard, forward and wherever else she was needed for Clark Atlanta, is listed at 5-foot, 9-inches.
They're both overachievers who led their teams to previously unachievable heights.
Hillard, who hails from Fayetteville,
N.C., at only the listed 6-4, led the CIAA in
scoring (23.2 points per game) and rebounding
(11.1 per game) for the second year in a row. He
won his second straight CIAA player of the year award while leading ECSU to its second
straight 20-win season, a feat never accomplished
in Vikings' history. This year, based on his
stellar play, Hilliard is the Black College Sports Page
player of the year and leader of the "Baad Team" of men's black college all-stars.
Moss, a Fort Lauderdale, Fl. native and former ACC champion sprinter at Georgia Tech before transferring to CAU, used that sprinter speed and athletic ability to torch SIAC opponents to the tune of a league-best 24.8 points per game and a hefty 9.8 rebounds per contest. That latter stat was about one-and-a-half rebounds per game from pulling off the scoring-rebounding double that Hilliard achieved. Moss led the Lady Panthers to a 26-4 record, their first top 25 national ranking and first NCAA Div. II playoff berth.
While Moss's scoring numbers were the best in black college women's basketball, Hillard's rebounding stats topped the men.
Moss's incredible season earns her the women's BCSP player of the year award and the top spot on the women's "Baad Team."
Joining Hilliard on the men's first team are deserving players of the year with impressive credentials in four other conferences.
Coppin State guard Tywain McKee has been a star and a player one could not ignore ever since he entered the MEAC four years ago and capped one of the most outstanding careers in conference history this season by being named that league's player of the year.
In his first year after transferring from Temple, McKee won the league's rookie of the year award and was named second team all-MEAC after averaging a team-best 15.4 points per game and being among the leaders in nine statistical categories. As a sophomore, he averaged 17.4 points per game, again best on the team, was among the conference leaders in seven categories and was named to the all-MEAC first team.
The 2007-08 season saw him take it up another level, averaging 16.6 points to repeat as a first team selection but then taking over the MEAC Tournament to lead the seventh-seeded Eagles to the championship while earning the tournament's most outstanding player award. McKee scored a season-high 33 points in the title game including canning the game-winning shot with 2.4 seconds to play that felled top-seed and cross town rival Morgan State. He scored a tournament-record 93 points.
Granted another year of eligibility by the NCAA, McKee was second in the MEAC in scoring this season at 18.4 points per game, averaged 5.7 rebounds while leading the league in steals (2.3 spg.). He finished as Coppin State's all-time leader in points (2,158) and the only player in CSU's history to lead the team in scoring in four consecutive seasons.
West Virginia State guard Ted Scott also has also had an impressive career culminating with his second West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year award this season. Playing on great teams under head coach Bryan Poore at WVSU, the Columbus, Ohio native averaged 9.6 and 15.4 points per game his first two seasons before exploding for 27.0 points per game to win his first POY award in the 2006-07 season.
He was felled with a knee injury and played only two games in the 2007-08 season but came back to win the award again after putting up 23.4 points per game for the Yellow Jackets this year. Scott finishes his career as WVSU's all-time scoring leader with 2,368 points (19.7 ppg.).
The 2009 SIAC Player of the Year, 6-8 senior Kenny Boyd of Morehouse, averaged 15.9 points and 9.0 rebounds per game for the Maroon Tigers. The Meridian, Ms. native who played two years for Morehouse after transferring from Meridian CC, averaged 15.9 points and 10.1 rebounds a year ago.
Alabama State point guard and SWAC Player of the Year Brandon Brooks rounds out the men's first team. Brooks, from Irving, Tx., led the Hornets to their second straight regular season title and this year's tournament crown averaging 14.2 points and a SWAC and black college best 6.8 assists per game.
Joining Moss on the women's first team is MEAC player of the year, North Carolina A&T senior forward Brittanie Taylor-James, who led the MEAC in scoring (18.9 ppg.) and helped garner regular season and tournament titles for the Lady Aggies. Taylor-James hails from Evanston, Ill.
St. Paul's junior guard Tatiana Ellis, ranked 10th nationally in Div. II in scoring at 22.2 points per game which topped the CIAA and earned her that conference's player of the year honor. Ellis, from Harlem, N.Y., averaged 2.2 3s per game to also top the league.
Prairie View junior forward Gatti Werema earned the SWAC player of the year award. Werema, from Miami, led the Lady Panthers to SWAC regular season and tournament titles averaging just 11.6 points and 7.6 rebounds but came thru in the clutch scoring 29 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in their tournament title game win.
The Fort Valley State backcourt tandem of juniors Takesha Riggs and Shekiya Tarpkins rounds out the women's first team. The nearly inseparable duo averaged 19.1 (Riggs) and 16.9 (Tarpkins) points per game for the Lady Wildcats who swept to SIAC regular season and tournament titles.
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