March 18,
2008
Men's Basketball: 2007-08 Season
Individual Accomplishments and
Highlights
The 2007-08 season full of many individual accomplishments
achievements. Here is a
list of the notable moments of the
season:
• Senior
forward John Barber became the first
player in school history to record
more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds
and 70 blocked shots in a career.
Barber finished his career with
1,016 points, 582 rebounds and 71
blocks. He is the 31st player in
school history to score more than
1,000 career points.
• Barber also set a school
record by playing in 120 games. He
started all 30 games during the
2007-08 campaign. He had career
season highs in points (407),
rebounds (210), assists (35) and
steals (19). He started 64 games in
his career.
• Senior guard Byron Davis
completed his collegiate career as a
1,000-point scorer. Davis tallied
1,056 career points playing two
seasons at Youngstown State and two
at New Mexico State. He had 722
points for the Penguins the past two
seasons.
• Davis started all 30 games,
scored a team-high 465 points,
grabbed 90 rebounds, had 71 assists
and 33 steals. He had 465 points
after scoring 591 his first three
seasons.
• For the second consecutive
year, the Penguins had two players
score more than 400 points. In
2006-07, Quin Humphrey and Keston
Roberts each had more than 400 while
this past year Byron Davis and John
Barber went over the 400-point
plateau.
•
Senior forward Dwight Holmes played
in 109 games in his career. In
2007-08, he had season career highs
with 140 points, 74 rebounds, 17
blocks and 11 steals. Holmes had a
career-high 19 points at Loyola. At
one point during the season, he made
17 straight free throws.
• Junior guard Mikko Niemi set
career season highs with 49 assists,
46 rebounds and 29 points. Niemi
recorded a career-high eight points
at UIC in the regular season.
• Junior forward Jack Liles
scored a career season-high 292
points. He led the team in
field-goal percentage shooting at a
54.7 percent clip (117-of-214). His
80 career blocked shots rank fourth
in school history, one behind TeJay
Anderson for third. Liles recorded a
career-high 21 points against
nationally-ranked Butler.
• Junior guard Mel Johnson had 94 points, 64 rebounds, 30
steals, 29 assists and 11 blocks
coming off the bench in all 30
games.
• Freshman Vytas Sulskis was
named to the Horizon League's
All-Newcomer squad. Sulskis is the
second YSU player in the past three
seasons (Roberts in 2005-06) to be
tabbed all-newcomer. He is the first
Guin freshman to be named to the
squad since joining the league.
• Sulskis set a school freshmen record by making 46
3-pointers and attempting 121 shots
from beyond the arc. Sulskis scored
270 points, the most by a freshman
since Doug Underwood had 290 in
2001-02. His 131 rebounds were the
most by a freshman since Desmond
Harrison (131) and Dave Brown (214)
in 1997-98. He also added 60 assists
and 32 steals.
• Freshman Vance Cooksey
started 20 of 30 games in his first
season for the Penguins. He led the
team with 88 assists and 42 steals.
He was tops on the team in
free-throw percentage converting at
a 79.7 percent clip (55-of-69). Of
his 53 field goals, 25 came from
behind the 3-point arc. He scored
186 points scoring in double figures
on seven occasions.
• In league action only, Byron Davis was fifth in scoring
(14.4 points per game), Jack Liles
was third in field-goal percentage
(58.3) and John Barber was second in
rebounding (7.6 per game). |