2012-13 AMCC Men's Basketball All Conference Teams
PITTSBURGH, PA – The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference released the 2012-13 All-Conference selections for men’s basketball February 26th. Head coach Rob deGrandpre was honored as the Coach of the Year in addition to two seniors and a rookie grabbing spots on the All-Conference teams. Senior Dan McFarland (Lancaster, NY/St. Mary’s) is a repeat 1st Teamer and is joined by fellow senior, Anthony Hodge (Brooklyn, NY/Telecommunication Arts & Technology) on the 1st Team. Jerame Owens (Rochester, NY/Spencerport) earned the Co-Newcomer of the Year award as well as a slot on the 3rd Team All-Conference.
deGrandpre earned his first Coach of the Year Award after 11 seasons at Hilbert. The 2012-13 Hawks earned the program’s first 20-win season and the program’s first ever number one seed in the AMCC tournament. This marked the fifth season that deGrandpre led his Hawks to the Championship weekend, having earned the #4 seed each previous year.
McFarland helped carry the Hawks to the 20-6 season with his all-around stellar play. The 6’2 southpaw finished his senior year ranked in the Top 10 in nine of the AMCC basketball statistical categories. He averaged 14 points (#7) and 6.6 rebounds (#7) along with 3.3 assists (#4) and 1.5 steals (#8) in the 32.7 minutes of court time. Even though he was a guard, McFarland wasn’t afraid to mix it up on the boards, averaging 2.5 offensive rebounds a game (4th in the league). He also claimed the number two ranking with a 1.7 assist to turnover ratio and shot 46.6% from the field and 74.1 from the foul line. McFarland led the Hawks in scoring six times while grabbing game-high rebounding honors seven times. This marks the third time McFarland has been named to an AMCC All-Conference team (2011-12 on 1st team; 2010-11 on 2nd Team).
Hodge, competing in his first full-season as a Hawk, turned heads all year. His quickness and tenacity drove opponents crazy as his jumping ability allowed him to elevate over defenders for good looks at the rim. Hodge and McFarland were the only players in the AMCC to rank in the Top 10 in both scoring and assists per game. Hodge averaged 16.7 points which was third highest in the league and his 2.8 assists per game placed him in the 10th spot in the league. He finished with .405 field goal percentage and was ranked 10th with .729 free throw percentage. At 5’8, he led the Hawks in scoring 15 times but it was his quick hands and feet that gained him recognition as he lead the conference with 2.5 steals per game in the 30.7 minutes he was on the floor.
It didn’t take Owens long to figure out that he could hold his own in the paint for Hilbert even as a freshman. By early January, he was averaging 30-minutes a game and was inserted into the starting line-up one week later. The 6’7 rookie finished the season ranked #2 in rebounding (8.9) and #3 in blocks (1.6) as well as #7 in field goal percentage (.525), #14 in steals (1.4), and # 16 in scoring (11.4 points) in the league. Owens collected 10 double-doubles his first year, most of them occurring late in the season when the Hawks needed his quiet but dominating presence in the paint. He had a nice touch around the hoop finishing with a .525 field goal percentage and his most impressive shooting game was against Medaille College in the AMCC semi-final game when he was 7 of 11 (.636) from the floor. Owens becomes the second Hilbert player to be awarded the Newcomer plaque. Current Hilbert guard, CJ Hodge, received that recognition at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.
Hilbert finished the year with a 14-4 AMCC record and hosted the league tournament as the number one seeded team. This marked the Hawks third year in a row advancing to the AMCC final four tourney. Hilbert dropped a heart-breaking 72-69 loss in the semi-finals and collected their regular season co-champs plaque after Penn State Behrend defeated Medaille College for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Headlining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Team All-Conference was Russ Conley (Penn State Behrend) who repeated as Player of the Year. The Defensive Player of the Year award was given to Matt Gehret (Penn State Altoona). And sharing the Co-Newcomer of the Year award with Owens was Rocco Constristanto (Pitt-Greensburg).