BOLIVAR, MO. ... The awards are still coming in for the Southwest Baptist University men's basketball team as they claimed two more honors this week. Sheldon Pace picked up his 3rd all-American award this year while freshman Colt Blair was named a freshman all-American.

Pace, who has been named a NABC and Daktronics all-American, earned his third award from the NCAA Division II Bulletin as a second team all-American. He was also selected to the inaugural NCAA Division II all-Star game in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he scored 14 points and had seven assists. Other accolades for Pace have been: MIAA MVP, MIAA Defensive Player of the Year, all-MIAA 1st-Team, MIAA Tournament MVP, MIAA all-Tournament Team, NCAA Division II South Central Region all-Tournament Team, and the Daktronics NCAA Division II South Central Region 1st-Team. He has also set the SBU single season record for assists (265) and steals (70).

In his first year as a college player, Colt Blair was one of 10 freshmen named to the NCAA Division II Bulletin Freshmen all-American Team. He was given the MIAA Freshman of the Year before the MIAA Tournament and led all freshmen scorers in the MIAA with an average of 7.0 points per game. He made 39.1% of his shots from 3-point range and finished third in the MIAA in 3-point field goal percentage and 10th in 3-point FGs made per game (1.62).

SBU finished the year at 27-5 and #6 in the nation. They won the MIAA regular season championship, outright, and then claimed the MIAA Tournament championship. Both championships were the first for SBU in 15 years. The Bearcats then maded the NCAA Tournament and were the #1 seed in the South Central Regional Tournament in which they hosted.

Sheldon Pace

 

Colt Blair