Saint Rose’s Steve Dagostino Named Player of the Year

- Merrimack’s Mency Honored as Freshman of the Year; Le Moyne’s Holmes Received Defensive Player of the Year Honors; Bentley’s Lawson Selected Coach of the Year -

Thursday, March 6, 2008

For Immediate Release:

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South Easton, Mass. – The College of Saint Rose’s Steve Dagostino (Schenectady, N.Y.) was named the 2007-2008 Northeast-10 Men’s Basketball Player of the Year.

Dagostino becomes just the fifth player in NE-10 history to win the award in back-to-back years. The last player to do so was Stacey Moragne of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (2005 & 2006). The senior guard helped lead the Golden Knights to a second place finish in the Northeast-10 regular season and an appearance in the NE-10 Tournament semifinals.

Dagostino currently ranks third in the conference in scoring, averaging 18.1 points, second in assists with 6.29 and first in assists with 2.50 per game. He is also ranked fourth in free-throw percentage converting on .886 percent of his attempts. In addition, Dagostino is ranked nationally in all four categories. He was selected to the All Northeast-10 First-Team for the second time in his collegiate career.

For the second straight year, Merrimack College produced the conference’s Freshman of the Year, as Darin Mency (Hagerstown, Md.) helped lead the Warriors to the conference tournament. Darren Duncan earned the honors in 2007. Mency started his collegiate career firing on all cylinders earning Freshman of the Week honors seven times. He currently ranks fourth in the conference in scoring, averaging 18.0 points per game and is the only freshman ranked in the top 30 in the conference in scoring. In addition, Mency is ranked 20th in rebounds per game (5.7) and is ranked among the national leaders in scoring. He was also selected to the NE-10 All-Rookie Team.

Le Moyne College’s Jason Holmes (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) was selected as the 2007-2008 Northeast-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Holmes helped lead the Dolphins to the NE-10 quarterfinals and anchored a defense that held opponents to a .430 shooting percentage which was fourth best in the conference. He finished the season averaging 14.8 points per game which is currently ninth best in the NE-10 and is currently fourth in steals with 2.14.

Bentley College’s Jay Lawson was selected as the Northeast-10 Coach of the Year for the second straight season and fifth overall (2006-2007, 2004-2005, 2003-2004, 1992-1993). Lawson has guided the top Division II team in the nation to back-to-back undefeated regular seasons and a record 28th appearance in the NE-10 Tournament.