Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
ALBANY, N.Y. – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced Friday that Canisius senior forward Jermaine Crumpton has been named the 2018 MAAC Co-Player of the Year, as voted on by the conference’s 11 head coaches. Crumpton received the honor at the MAAC’s annual Postseason Awards Show, which was held at Albany Capital Center. Crumpton is the fourth Canisius player to win the MAAC’s Player of the year title, joining former Griffs Craig Wise (1995), current East High coach Darrell Barley (1996) and Billy Baron (2014).
Crumpton shared the award with Niagara senior Khalil Dukes. This marks the first time in the conference’s 37-year history where the MAAC Player of the Year voting has resulted in a tie.
“I am truly honored to be named the MAAC Co-Player of the Year,” Crumpton said. “This award is not just for me personally, but for our entire Canisius men’s basketball team and the Canisius College community. Coach Witherspoon and our coaching staff has done a tremendous job helping me makes strides on and off the court. This award belongs to my teammates as much as me, though. To be in this position, you have to be on a good team. Without my teammates, I would not be accepting this honor. This league is competitive from top-to-bottom, and there are a lot of really good players. I’m honored and blessed that the coaches in our league thought enough about my game to vote for me.”
Crumpton finished the regular season ranked sixth in the MAAC in scoring average with 16.9 points per game. The Niagara Falls, N.Y., native averaged a team-best 18.4 points per game in MAAC games and closed out the regular season scoring 10 or more points in 27 straight games, dating back to Nov. 24. An All-MAAC First Team selection, Crumpton averaged 5.2 rebounds per game, dished out 1.6 assists per contest and shot 48.6 percent from the field and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line, which ranks sixth in the MAAC.
His 525 total points this season rank 115th in the country and stand as the most for a Canisius senior since former Baron had 821 points during the 2013-14 campaign. Crumpton is the first Canisius frontcourt player to earn All-MAAC First-Team accolades since Darren Fenn was honored in 1999-00.
As a team, Canisius went 21-10 overall and 15-3 in MAAC play to earn the MAAC co-regular-season championship, the first for the program since 1993-94. The second-seeded Griffs will take on Quinnipiac Friday night at 9:30 p.m., in the MAAC Basketball Championship quarterfinal round. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN3 and the radio call will be available on Buffalo’s WECK 1230-AM and 102.9-FM, GoGriffs.com and the TUNEIN app.
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