Courtesy of LehighSports.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – For the second straight season, Lehigh men’s basketball junior Tim Kempton has received Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America honors, as announced on Tuesday. Kempton, who also garnered his second consecutive Patriot League Player of the Year award, averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in 2015-16.
Kempton is just the third player in Lehigh men’s basketball history to receive the award and second to earn it multiple times, joining Austen Rowland in 2004 and C.J. McCollum in 2010 and 2012. The junior was also named an NABC first team All-District honoree, marking the second straight season he has been recognized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Kempton joins an impressive group of college players who earned AP Honorable Mention All-American honors in 2016, of them are Brandon Ingram of Duke, Melo Trimble of Maryland, Kyle Wiltjer of Gonzaga and Dillon Brooks of Oregon. The Scottsdale, Ariz. native notched 13 double-doubles on the year, including a 16 point and 12 rebound effort at Final Four participant Syracuse in the season-opener, both game highs.
After averaging 15.3 points and 8.7 rebounds as a sophomore, those numbers increased as a junior. He also tallied more assists (41), blocks (13) and steals (20) than his sophomore campaign while shooting a career-high 55.5 percent from the field and 75.5 percent from the free throw line. Over his last 10 games, Kempton averaged 18.8 points and 12.4 rebounds, which included consecutive games at Army West Point and vs. Navy in the Patriot League Quarterfinals when he posted a combined 45 points and 35 rebounds. Kempton was named the league’s Player of the Week in two of the final three weeks of the regular season.
Lehigh finished the season with a 17-15 record and 13-5 league record, making it all the way to the Patriot League Championship Game. The 13 league victories marked a school record. Lehigh played five NCAA Tournament teams in its nonleague schedule, including Syracuse, Virginia, Purdue, Yale and Stony Brook. The Mountain Hawks return four of its five starters next season, all of whom earned postseason recognition in the Patriot League.
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Story by Michael Reiner ’16
AP All-Americans
First Team
Denzel Valentine, Michigan State
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Tyler Ulis, Kentucky
Brice Johnson, North Carolina
Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia
Second Team
Jakob Poeltl, Utah
Ben Simmons, LSU
Perry Ellis, Kansas
Kris Dunn, Providence
Georges Niang, Iowa State
Third Team
Grayson Allen, Duke
Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, Indiana
Jarrod Uthoff, Iowa
Kay Felder, Oakland
Jamal Murray, Kentucky
Honorable Mention
Ryan Anderson, Arizona; Anthony “Cat” Barber, N.C. State; DeAndre’ Bembry, Saint Joseph’s; Ben Bentil, Providence; Trevon Bluiett, Xavier; Joel Bolomboy, Weber State; Evan Bradds, Belmont; Dillon Brooks, Oregon; Cane Broome, Sacred Heart; John Brown, High Point; Antonio Campbell, Ohio; Kyle Collinsworth, BYU; Stephen Croone, Furman; James Daniel III, Howard; Juan’ya Green, Hofstra; Derrick Griffin, Texas Southern; Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech; A.J. Hammons, Purdue; Marvelle Harris, Fresno State; Josh Hart, Villanova; Danuel House, Texas A&M; Brandon Ingram, Duke; Stefan Jankovic, Hawaii; Tim Kempton, Lehigh; Max Landis, IPFW; Shawn Long, Louisiana-Lafayette; Dallas Moore, North Florida; Nic Moore, SMU; Gary Payton II, Oregon State; Alec Peters, Valparaiso, Justin Robinson, Monmouth (N.J.); Domantas Sabonis, Gonzaga; Justin Sears, Yale; Pascal Siakam, New Mexico State; Melo Trimble, Maryland; Fred VanVleet, Wichita State; Thomas Walkup, Stephen F. Austin; Jameel Warney, Stony Brook; Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall; Kyle Wiltjer, Gonzaga.
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