In their second year of existence, the LSUE Bengals men’s basketball team landed a conference-high six players to the All-LCCAC team and also secured the top individual honors.
Freshman Jonathan Cisse was awarded co-Player of the Year while Byron Starks earned Coach of the Year billing to headline the LSUE award recipients. Cisse was joined by Tyrone Hugue on the first-team, while Jevon Berry and Mamady Djikine grabbed second-team honors. Semaj Matthews is on the Honorable Mention list, while Michael Smith lands on the All-Defensive Team.
Cisse split the Player of the Year honors with SU-Shreveport’s Latreavin Black. The freshman led LSUE with 15.4 points per game while adding 4.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists per night. Cisse strengthened his production in LCCAC play, averaging 16.6 points per night in conference action including five 20-plus point performances.
Byron Starks earned the league’s top honor after guiding the Bengals to their first LCCAC regular season title in just the second year of the program’s existence. LSUE dominated the LCCAC, going 8-1 with an average margin of victory of 19 points. The Bengals grabbed their first-ever 20-win campaign while going an impressive 14-1 inside the HPRE Center.
Another postseason honor went to Ava Jones with her being named to the All-Region 23 team. The former Carencro Golden Bear had one of the best seasons in the history of the program, finishing 44th nationally in points per game with a 17.5 average which included 23 double-digit point efforts.
Jones is the first LSUE women’s basketball player to earn a NJCAA All-Region nomination and the first Bengal to earn an All-Region accolade since Renotta Edwards in 2007.