PSAC announcement

EAST STROUDSBURG – Junior guards Whis Grant and Matt Tobin were named to the first team and forward Rasheed Moore was named Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the second team, giving East Stroudsburg University three players on the All-PSAC East men's basketball team.

ESU (26-1), ranked No. 2 in Division II, hosts the PSAC Final Four on Saturday and Sunday at Koehler Fieldhouse. The Warriors have set a program record for wins and won their second straight PSAC East regular season title, earning a 15-1 divisional record.

ESU was one game (an 82-80 loss at Lock Haven on February 6) from becoming the first PSAC team to go undefeated in the regular season in 48 years. ESU will play in the PSAC Final Four for the fifth straight year, just the third program in the last 30 years to reach five straight semifinals.

Grant (Plymouth Meeting/Plymouth Whitemarsh) is the first Warrior to be named to the first team in consecutive years since Lonnie White in 1992 and 1993, and just the seventh in school history.

Tobin (Hopatcong, N.J./Hopatcong) earned a spot on the first team after leading the PSAC in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and steals in his second season as the Warriors' starting point guard.

Moore (Wilkes-Barre/Meyers) is the only freshman on either the All-PSAC East or All-PSAC West teams and the fifth Warrior to be named Freshman of the Year (first since Terrance King in 2010. He is only the second freshman to earn an all-conference spot in program history, joining Shahad Abdur-Rahkman, who was on the first team in 2000.

Grant and Tobin are only the fourth set of ESU teammates to be named to the first team in the same season. Grant and Terrance King were selected last year, along with tandems in 1994 (Michael Smith, Eric White) and 1992 (Todd Painton, Lonnie White).

Grant, last year's PSAC East Athlete of the Year as a sophomore, will be ESU's leading scorer for a third straight season, averaging 16.9 points per game. He ranks seventh in school history with 1,381 career points during his junior season, leading ESU's 2012 PSAC championship team with 13.9 ppg as a freshman and posting 17.6 ppg last year.

He has scored 20+ points in 10 games, all in the 16-game PSAC East schedule, including a career-high 31 in a 107-94 win at PSAC East preseason favorite West Chester on January 25.

Grant is a returning NABC and DII Bulletin All-America honorable mention selection and was named to DII Bulletin's "Super 16" entering the season.

Tobin is averaging 6.3 assists per game, 2.3 steals per game and has a 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, all the best in the PSAC, entering the Final Four this weekend at Koehler Fieldhouse.

ESU's fifth-leading scorer with 9.4 points per game, Tobin averages almost two assists per game more than the next-ranked player in the PSAC. He had a career-high 14 assists and 11 points for his third double-double of the season in Tuesday's 78-58 win over Millersville in the PSAC quarterfinals, and has four games with 10+ assists this season.

Tobin's older brother, Mike, was a second team All-PSAC East selection at forward for the Warriors as a senior during the 2010-11 season. Mike was the top rebounder and second-leading scorer on ESU's 2010 and 2011 PSAC Final Four teams, and helped the 2010 team to a then-school-record 24 wins and the first of ESU's three trips to the NCAA Tournament in the last four years.

Moore is the second-leading scorer (13.7 ppg) and top rebounder (6.3 rpg) as a freshman on the No. 2-ranked team in Division II. He was a five-time PSAC East Freshman of the Week, filling the forward position vacated by 2013 first team selection Terrance King.

Moore has scored in double figures in 22 of the Warriors' 27 games and produced three double-doubles, including 20 points and 16 rebounds in a 102-87 win over Lock Haven on December 4. He had 24 points in the win at West Chester, combining with Grant to score 55 points, the most by an ESU tandem in 12 seasons under head coach Jeff Wilson.

Wilson, last year's Coach of the Year, has guided ESU to three PSAC East titles in the last five years, and will take the Warriors to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the fourth time in five years when the national field is announced on Sunday night.

ESU is in the PSAC Final Four for the fifth straight season, becoming just the third PSAC school to hit that mark in the last 30 years. The Warriors are 108-38 since the start of the 2009-10 season and 68-20 in the last three years, the most wins in a three-year stretch in school history.

The Warriors were picked second in the PSAC East preseason poll after losing two 1,300-point scorers in All-PSAC East forwards Duane Johnson and Terrance King, a third starter in forward Gerald Bridges and two other seniors in guard Blair Ramsey and forward Dan Clapp.

Led by their backcourt of Tobin and Grant and bolstered by the additions of Moore and sophomore guard Jamal Nwaniemeka (12.8 ppg), the Warriors were the final undefeated team in Division II this season (20-0) and have been ranked in the Top 10 in Division II for 10 straight weeks.

Redshirt junior guard Will Brown (9.4 ppg) returned after missing two seasons due to injury, junior forward Lamont Tillery (7.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg) continued to progress and senior forward Zechariah Runkle (4.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg) is the Warriors' only senior as they have put together the winningest season in program history.


ESU players, multiple 1st team All-PSAC selections
2013-14 – Whis Grant
1992-93 – Lonnie White
1988-90 – Jonathan Roberts
1983-84 – Earle Greer
1980-81 – Don Bones
1971-72 – John Lehman
1956-56 – Dave  MacLaughlin

2 ESU players on 1st team
2014 – Whis Grant (G), Matt Tobin (G)
2013 – Whis Grant (G), Terrance King (F)
1994 – Michael Smith (F), Eric White (F)
1992 – Todd Painton (F), Lonnie White (C)

ESU players, Freshman of the Year
2014 – Rasheed Moore (F)
2010 – Terrance King (F)
2000 – Shahad Abdur-Rahkman (F)
1999 – Juwan Justice (G)
1995 – Luis Ortiz (G)

ESU freshmen on All-PSAC team
2014 – Rasheed Moore (2nd team)
2000 – Shahad Abdur-Rahkman (1st team)



All-PSAC East 1st team
Joe Bell, Mansfield
Whis Grant, ESU
Wali Hepburn, Lock Haven
Troy Hockaday, West Chester
Dontahe Jordan, Bloomsburg
Matt Tobin, ESU

Athlete of the Year – Wali Hepburn, Lock Haven
Defensive Athlete of the Year – Charles Pemberton, Mansfield
Freshman of the Year – Rasheed Moore, ESU
Coach of the Year – Mike Nestor, Lock Haven

All-PSAC East 2nd team
Cory Blake, West Chester
Lorenzo Christmas, Bloomsburg
Kasheef Festus, Lock Haven
Joe Lococo, Shippensburg
Rasheed Moore, ESU
Tracy Peal, Kutztown


All-PSAC West 1st team
Adam Blazek, Gannon
Mathis Keita, IUP
Malachi Leonard, Seton Hill
Maurice Lewis-Briggs, Slippery Rock
Marcel Souberbielle, IUP
Bryan Theriot, Edinboro

Athlete of the Year – Adam Blazek, Gannon
Defensive Athlete of the Year – C.J. Oldham, Gannon
Freshman of the Year – B.J. Andrews, Clarion
Coach of the Year – John Reilly, Gannon

All-PSAC West 2nd team
Devante Chance, IUP
Mike Kromka, Clarion
Jonathan Ouegnin, Mercyhurst
Tabari Perry, Slippery Rock
Raphell Thomas-Edwards, Gannon
Ian Vescovi, Pitt-Johnstown