Canisius sophomore guard Zach Lewis was named All-MAAC Third-Team while redshirt-freshman Kassius Robertson earned MAAC All-Rookie Team honors, the conference office announced today on its annual postseason conference call. For Lewis, this marks the second-straight year he's received postseason honors from the league, and Robertson becomes just the third Golden Griffin player in the last decade to earn a spot on the conference's all-rookie team.
By earning MAAC All-Rookie Team honors, Robertson is now eligible to be named the 2015 MAAC Rookie of the Year. All major individual award winners will be announced Friday, March 6 at the league's Postseason Awards Show, which will be held at 5 p.m., at the Swyer Theater at the Egg in Albany, N.Y. That awards show will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
Lewis earned third-team all-conference honors after he led the team with his 12.9 points per game scoring average, which ranks 15th in the MAAC. The Windsor, Conn., native leads the team and ranks fourth in the MAAC with 2.4 3-point field goals per game, and his 69 makes from long-range this season ties him for seventh on the school's single-season 3-point field goals made chart. Defensively, Lewis leads the Griffs, ranks fifth in the MAAC and 99th in the nation with 1.7 steals per game, with 31 of his 50 total steals coming in MAAC games. Lewis was a Preseason All-MAAC Third-Team honoree to start this 2014-15 season and last year he became the first Canisius player
Robertson is just the eighth Canisius freshmen to earn MAAC All-Rookie Team honors since the College joined the conference prior to the start of the 1989-90 academic year. The Toronto native averaged 6.0 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game in 29 contests this season while shooting 46 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from 3-point land. In the team's 18 games since Jan. 2, Robertson is averaging 8.1 points per game, and in the team's last five outings, he's been good for 10.8 points per game while shooting 60.7 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from 3-point land and 88.2 percent from the free-throw line.
The Griffs closed out the regular season with a 16-13 overall record to go with an 11-9 mark in MAAC play. The team won four of its last five games down the stretch, and earned a first-round bye in this weekend's MAAC Men's Basketball Championship, which will be held in Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. The Griffs are the No. 5 seed in this year's tournament and the team will face No. 4 seed Monmouth Saturday, Match 7 at 2:30 p.m., in the quarterfinal round. That game will be broadcast live on ESPN3, and the audio call will be available in Buffalo on Timeless WECK 1230-AM and 102.9-FM and through the Golden Griffin Broadcast Network at GoGriffs.com.
