Six PBC Men's Basketball Players Named NABC All-District

AUGUSTA, GA -- Six Peach Belt Conference men’s basketball players have been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) South Atlantic All-District team. Three of those players, Chris Commons and Jeremy Fears of USC Aiken and Tyrekus ‘AJ’ Bowman of Augusta State, have been named to the first team and are now eligibile for All-America recognition. ASU’s Garret Siler and Ben Madgen along with GCSU’s Aaron Clark were all named to the second team. USC Aiken’s Vince Alexander was also recognized as the region Coach of the Year.

Named the co-Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, Commons was second nationally in scoring at 21.8 points per game while also puling down 6.4 rebounds per game and shooting 54.3 percent from the field. The 6’8” junior from Toledo, Ohio, was named PBC Player of the Week a record five times during the season and scored 20-plus points 21 times. Commons scored 38 points in his USC Aiken debut and finished the season with 675 points, the second-most ever and just 16 points shy of the school’s single-season record of 691, set by Clint Keown in 2001-02.

Fears was named also named to the Peach Belt All-Conference team in his first season with the Pacers. The 6’5” junior guard from Chicago, Illinois, averaged 17.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game. Fears scored in double figures in 24 of 27 games played, including 10 games with 20 or more points.

Bowman was named the PBC co-Player of the Year and became the fourth player in conference history to earn Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons. Bowman, who was named the Most Outstanding Player at the South Atlantic Regional tournament, is the second-leading scorer in PBC history with 1,761 points. This year, the senior from Tignall, Ga., was third in the PBC with 19.6 ppg. He was also third in rebounding at 7.5 per contest and fourth in blocks. Bowman will add to those numbers as Augusta State competes in the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time.

Garret Siler was named to the second team after leading the nation for the second straight year in field goal percentage. The junior center from Augusta, Ga., also led the league in rebounding with 7.9 per game and blocks with 2.7. He was also ninth in scoring with 14.5 ppg. Siler was named PBC All-Conference for the second straight season in 2008 and will be playing in the Elite Eight.

Ben Madgen was seventh in the PBC in scoring in 2007-08, averaging 16.1 ppg. The 207 PBC Freshma of the Year continued his strong play as a sophomore, being named All-Conference and to the region All-Tournament team. From Williamstown, Austrailia, Madgen was second in the PBC in free throw percentage and 11th in made three-pointers.

Aaron Clark was named All-Conference this season after leading Georgia College & State University to the semifinals of the PBC Tournament. The senior from Suwanee, Ga., was second in the PBC in rebounding with 7.6 per game and 15th in scoring with 13.1 ppg. He leaves GCSU as the only player in school history to be ranked in the career top 10 in points, rebounds, blocks, steals and assists.

After engineering the sixth-ranked Pacers to a 27-4 record and the 2007-08 Peach Belt Conference regular season title, Vince Alexander becomes the first USC Aiken coach to ever win NABC Coach of the Year honors. Alexander’s squad led the conference standings wire-to-wire in winning the program’s first PBC regular season title since 1992-93. The Pacers broke school records for wins (27), Peach Belt wins (19), home wins (14), consecutive wins (14), and were ranked nationally for the first time in the program’s history.

Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, the 88 student-athletes, from eight districts, are now eligible for the State Farm Division II All-America teams. Each district selected six players to the first-team while five more players were placed on the second-team.