Western Washington University senior guard Taylor Stafford was named MVP at the men’s basketball award banquet Tuesay. Fellow senior Jeffrey Paker took home the Joe Morse Most Inspirational Player award from the event held at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club.
Stafford averaged 22.8 points per game and was named First Team All-American by the NABC and Basketball Times. He was also named the GNAC Player of the Year and GNAC Tournament MVP.
Parker, battled through the death of his mother at the start of the season, to be named a First Team All-GNAC selection and ended his Viking career as WWU’s all-time leading scorer with 1,867 points.
WWU celebrated an outstanding year that saw the 25-and-6 Vikings win the GNAC regular season title and tournament while advancing to the NCAA Division II Championships.
Other team awards include:
Stat Player Award: Taylor Stafford
Most Improved Player: Blake Fernandez
Rich Baxter Hustle Award: Trevor Jasinsky
Rebounding per Minute Award: Logan Schilder
Price Visser Rebounding Award: Deandre Dickson
Practice Player of the Year: Brett Kingma
Chuck Randall Coaches Award: Daulton Hommes
Junior guard Blake Fernandez was the Fred Lewis Memorial Winter Scholar Athlete Award winner. The honor goes to theplayer with the highest GPA during winter quarter.
(KPUG Newsroom)
