NEWARK, NJ—Sporting News Today announced that NJIT guard Chris Flores is its choice as 2009-10 Freshman of the Year in the Great West Conference.
With the Highlanders set to play Houston Baptist in the Great West Conference Tournament semifinal Friday night, Flores is averaging 14 points per game (2nd on the NJIT team) and 3.9 rebounds per game (3rd).
His 57 three-point field goals and 53 steals are both NJIT Division I school records. His 69 assists this season rank second on the 2009-10 Highlanders.
Flores, who averaged 16.4 points in 12 Great West Conference games, shot better than 46 percent on his field goal attempts and nearly 45 percent on three-point tries in conference play.
The Great West Conference does not have an official Freshman of the Year, but Flores, a second-team all-Great West honoree in official voting of conference coaches and sports information directors, was the only freshman on either the official first or second teams. He was also voted onto the official all-Newcomer team, which includes transfers in addition to freshmen.
Sporting News Today also named Tyler Cain and Dave Boots of regular season champion South Dakota as its Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively. The same two men received the corresponding official awards.
The SN announcements of its Great West award winners came along with similar honors in all of the other NCAA Division I conferences.
Sporting News Today is a 30-plus page digital sports daily that traces its roots back to The Sporting News, which began life in 1886 as a weekly sports newspaper and continued that way for 122 years. In 2008, the periodical went bi-weekly in its print version and daily on line.
