Troy men’s and women’s basketball land postseason conference awards

Published 8:16 pm Wednesday, March 11, 2015

It’s not the end of the road for college basketball just yet, but the postseason awards have been piling up at Troy University.

Troy announced men’s basketball freshman guard Wesley Person was named the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year, and women’s basketball players Ronita Garrett and Ashley Beverly-Kelley have been named First Team All-Sun Belt.

Person, who showed flashes of his potential almost immediately in the 2014-2015 season, ended his inaugural year with Troy by scoring in double digits in 26 of Troy’s 29 regular season games, and is the only freshman ranked in the Sun Belt’s top-10 in scoring and 3-pointers made per game.

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In addition to the Freshman of the Year honor, Person earned a spot on the All-Sun Belt third team.

The freshman scored 412 total points this season, the most in Troy’s Division 1 era.

“As a coaching staff, we are extremely proud of Wesley for being selected as the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year,” said head coach Phil Cunningham. “Wesley earned this award because he consistently played at a high level throughout the course of 20 league games, and his statistics back up that claim.”

For the women, both Garrett and Beverly-Kelley have been integral pieces to Troy’s historic 20-9 regular season.

The duo is the first pair of Troy teammates to land on the First Team All-Sun Belt since 2002-03 when Chaquita Alexander and Thea Herring earned that same honor.

This season, Beverly-Kelley led all Trojans in scoring with 17.7 points a game.

The junior guard also made history by scoring her 1,000th point of her career earlier in the season, and scored a career-high 46 points against Georgia State, the most points by any Division 1 player this season.

Garrett also had a career season for Troy in 2014-15, recording 21 double-doubles, the seventh-most in the NCAA and most in the Sun Belt.

The senior forward ranks fourth in the conference in scoring at 16.0 points per game and first in rebounding with 11.3 rebounds per game.

The two helped Troy rise to a No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, its highest since it joined the conference.