Huntington Times

Kinsey Named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year

Fifth-year senior Taevion Kinsey was named the Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year as announced by the league office on Monday.

Center Micah Handlogten earned SBC Freshman of the Year while Kinsey and redshirt senior Andrew Taylor were also named All-SBC First-Team selections. 

Kinsey has had a storybook ending to his collegiate career. The Columbus, Ohio, native has scored 688 points (22.2 per game) to lead the conference and rank third in the nation this season. Kinsey's 20 games of 20 or more points and his 266 made field goals also lead the Sun Belt while ranking second in Division I men's basketball. He tallied a career-high 37 points at Georgia State on February 11, the most by any student-athlete in a Sun Belt Conference game this season. 

In addition to his scoring prowess, Kinsey ranks second in total assists (162) and assists per game (5.4) in the conference. He became the program's all-time leader in made field goals on Friday at Old Dominion passing Skip Henderson's mark of 1,000 and sits at 2,623 career points, 16 shy of passing Jon Elmore's 2,638 for first all-time in Marshall history.

Handlogten put together quite the first season of collegiate basketball as he started all 31 games. His 9.9 rebounds per game, 308 rebounds and 3.5 offensive rebounds per game were all tops of the SBC. All those marks also rank in the top 15 in the country. The Huntersville, North Carolina, native also recorded eight double-doubles (4th most in SBC) and rejected 72 shots to rank 10th in the NCAA. 

Taylor finished the regular season with 626 points (20.2 per game) on 246 makes, both second in the SBC, en route to his first-team all-SBC nod. The native of Corbin, Kentucky, had 14 games of 20 or more points and accumulated 66 steals to lead the SBC and rank 12th in Division I men's basketball. His 148 assists and 4.8 assists per game bare both third in the conference. The redshirt senior guard tallied a career-high 33 points and 10 rebounds at Coastal Carolina on February 9 for one of his two doubles-doubles this season. 

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