Thursday, March 01, 2007

Urule Igbavboa (Oakdale, Minn./Tartan) was named to the All Mid-Continent Conference Second Team, while Shawn Huff (Helsinki, Finland/Makelanrinne) received Honorable Mention accolades and Samuel Haanpaa (Kerava, Finland/Cornerstone [Texas] Christian) was named to the All-Newcomer team as the league announced its annual awards today.

Igbavboa receives Second Team accolades after finishing second on the Crusaders in scoring (11.4 ppg) and leading the team in rebounding (7.4 rpg). The sophomore's rebounding numbers rank second in the Mid-Con, while his field goal percentage of 55.6% is third-best in the league. Igbavboa has also registered nine double-doubles on the season, second-most in the conference.

Huff earns a spot on the Honorable Mention team after averaging 11.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game during the regular season. Huff leads the Crusaders and is second in the league with an 88.0% free throw percentage, and has paced Valpo in scoring on ten occasions this year. The junior was named the Mid-Con Player of the Week for the week of February 5 after averaging 16 points and 6.5 rebounds in wins over Oral Roberts and Centenary.

Haanpaa was named to the All-Newcomer team after becoming one of the Mid-Con's most prolific perimeter threats during his first season. The freshman paces the Crusaders with 11.7 points per game. He also leads the Mid-Con with his 45.2% percentage from 3-point range, and is fourth in the league with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game.

Valparaiso (16-14, 9-5 Mid-Con) finished third during the regular season and will face sixth-seeded UMKC (11-19, 6-8 Mid-Con) on Sunday evening in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Con Tournament. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. at John Q. Hammons Arena at the UMAC in Tulsa, Okla., and all the action can be heard live on the Valpo Sports Radio Network (WVUR, 95.1 FM, Valparaiso; WEFM, 95.9 FM, Michigan City; WAKE, 1500 AM, Valparaiso) and online at www.valpo.edu/athletics.