Moore Named All-Conference
{fshare id=6107}
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (American/SMU) – Three SMU men’s basketball players earned all-league awards as junior Nic Moore was named a unanimous selection to the American Athletic Conference first-team and senior Yanick Moreira and junior Markus Kennedy were named to the second team, league officials announced on Tuesday. The trio helped SMU to a 24-6 overall record and a 15-3 conference mark, earning the team its first league title in 22 years.
Moore, a guard from Winona Lake, Indiana, has started all 30 games for SMU this season and leads the Mustangs in scoring with 14.4 points per game as well as 5.3 assists per contest. From the line, Moore is the conference leader in free-throw percentage (.875) and also holds the top spot in three-point percentage (.429).
A unanimous preseason All-AAC selection, Moore was named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50, the Naismith Trophy 50 Watch List and the Lute Olson Award Mid-Season Watch List. This is the second-straight year Moore has earned a first-team nod making him the first player at SMU to earn back-to-back honors since Jeryl Sasser (All-Western Athletic Conference first team 1998-99 and 1999-2000).
Moreira, who has started all 30 games for SMU, picked up second-team all-league honors as the teams’ leader in rebounds (6.4) and is second in points (11.3). The Luanda, Angola, native is fourth on the conference field goal percentage list (.563), while his rebounding total places him seventh and his blocked shots total (1.3) is tied for seventh.
Philadelphia native Kennedy is third on the team in scoring (11.2) and second in rebounding (6.0) in 20 games played en route to a second-team selection. The forward averaged 22.4 minutes off the bench and was second on the team in blocks. Last season, Kennedy was named to the league’s second-team in its inaugural year.
SMU is the No. 1 seed for The American tournament and faces the winner of No. 8 East Carolina/No. 9 UCF on Friday at 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m CT in Hartford, Connecticut. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
