Men's Basketball Honored With Three All-Region Selections

Greensboro, N.C. (3/15/07) -- Guilford College’s Ben Strong was named the 2007 D3hoops.com South Region Player of the Year and the Quakers’ Tom Palombo earned South Region Coach of the Year honors Wednesday. Guilford’s Jordan Snipes was named to the second team all-region team.

 

A 6-11 junior center, Strong averaged 25.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. He won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s (ODAC) Player of the Year Award and was a five-time ODAC Player of the Week. Strong also ranked among the national field-goal percentage leaders (.585) and made a team-leading 79.7 percent of his free throws.  His 737 points rank fourth in school history, tops among Guilford’s NCAA Division III students.  Strong scored an NCAA Division III Tournament-record 59 points, including the winning free throw, in Guilford’s 129-128 triple-overtime win over Lincoln (Pa.) in the third round of the NCAA playoffs.  His 59 points set league and school scoring marks and helped him win the Most Outstanding Player Award at the four-team sectional tournament. Strong enters his senior season ranked 13th in school history with 1,494 career points in 83 games.

Palombo guided Guilford to its best record in over 30 years (24-5) and its first NCAA Division III playoff appearance. The Quakers won three NCAA games to reach the national quarterfinals before falling to Virginia Wesleyan, 81-71, March 10. After guiding Guilford to a school-record 15-3 league record this year, Palombo won his second ODAC’s Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year Award. He has a 67-42 record in four Guilford seasons and a 167-105 mark in 10 years as a college men’s basketball coach. Four Quakers have earned All-ODAC honors six times under Palombo’s guidance.

Snipes, a 6-4 senior guard, averaged 17.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game in his finest college season. He earned First Team All-ODAC honors and was named the league’s Player of the Week once this year. Snipes represented Guilford on the NCAA Division III All-Sectional Tournament team after averaging 19.5 points and eight rebounds in the Quakers' two games. He led Guilford’s scorers eight times and made a team- and career-high 44 three-pointers. Snipes played in 82 career games with 75 starts and averaged 13.3 points per game, the third-highest scoring average in the Quakers' Division III history. He reached the 1,000 career points plateau this year and finished his career with 1,149 points. His 1,093 points as a Quaker stand 23rd in the school's 93-year history.