The St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball team had four players take home East Coast Conference post-season awards, which were announced on Friday. Osbel Caraballo and Demetre Roberts earned All-Conference First Team selections, while Grant Singleton took home Second Team honors and Jamal Barnes received Third Team accolades. In addition, Head Coach Tobin Anderson was recognized as the league's Coach of the Year by his peers. The Spartans (24-4, 17-1 ECC) will carry the top seed into Saturday's ECC semi-finals, squaring off against #5 seeded Roberts Wesleyan College at Aquinas Hall, with the opening tip set for 12:00 p.m.

 

Leading the Spartans this season, Demetre Roberts is a force to be reckoned with in the ECC. The senior guard from Mount Vernon, N.Y. is the team's top point-producer, with 16.6 ppg, currently standing 3rd in the ECC and he is also 4th in Assists at 4.2 apg. He appeared in 27 of 28 games, to date this season, scoring in double-figures in all but five of those contests. Roberts was named an ECC Player of the Week on three occasions during the regular season and was tabbed an Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Division II Player of the Week.

 

Joining him on the First Team is Osbel Caraballo, who has brought his tremendous poise, an explosive inside game and his ferocious defensive abilities to the Spartans' line-up and hopes to continue those traits during the 2022 postseason. His 15.3 ppg is second on the team and 5th in the ECC and he has appeared in 22 games this season to date. The senior guard/forward from Bolivar, Venezuela earned the conference's first Player of the Week accolades of the season, back in November.

 

Another member of the Spartan core over the last four seasons for Coach Anderson, Grant Singleton received Second Team honors for his work during the 2021-22 regular season campaign. The 6-0 senior guard from Sumter, South Carolina has helped STAC get to the postseason with his speed, skill and dazzling play-making abilities. He currently ranks fourth on the team in scoring (11.6 ppg) and is in the top ten in assists per game (3.4 apg) within the ECC. Singleton most recently became the 36th member of the St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Basketball program to eclipse the 1000 career point mark and has been named an ECC Player of the Week, a 2-time conference Defensive Player of the Week and a Met Basketball Writers Association Division II Player of the Week.

 

Rounding out the Spartans' All-Conference parade is Jamal Barnes, the second year guard from Temple Hills, Maryland took home Third Team kudos for his breakout season in Sparkill. Barnes' perimeter and three-point shooting abilities have complimented the STAC attack this season, as currently ranks second on the team and in the league from beyond the arc (44.6 percent), just behind fellow teammate Antonio Vendola (48.0 percent).

 

Finally, in his ninth season leading the STAC Men's Basketball Program, Head Coach Tobin Anderson earns his second straight season Coach of the Year award and  fourth such honor since arriving in Sparkill in 2012. Anderson, has guided the Spartans to a 205-61 record since the start of the 2012-13 season, and his teams have won five ECC Regular Season titles, five ECC Tournament Championships, qualified for six straight NCAA Division II Tournaments, won an NCAA D2 East Region crown (2017) and made an Elite Eight appearance, also in 2017. Coach Anderson will lead his Spartans in to battle this weekend with the hopes of capturing a sixth ECC Tournament Championship and a seventh consecutive bid into the NCAA Tournament.

 

2021-2022 ECC Men’s Basketball All-Conference
First Team
Osbel Caraballo, St. Thomas Aquinas
Sean Fasoyiro, Daemen
Darren Fergus, Molloy
William Muller, Molloy
Demetre Roberts, St. Thomas Aquinas
Andrew Sischo, Daemen

Second Team
Messiah Mallory, Staten Island
Jahmir Marable-Williams, Dist. Columbia
Ja'Kair Sanchez, Roberts Wesleyan
Grant Singleton, St. Thomas Aquinas
Kenyon Stone, Dist. Columbia 

Third Team
Jamal Barnes, St. Thomas Aquinas
Shane Fanning, Roberts Wesleyan 
Dion Herrington, Queens
Amari Lee, Roberts Wesleyan
Steven Torre, Molloy

Player of the Year: Andrew Sischo, Gr., C, Daemen
Defensive Player of the Year: Sean Fasoyiro, Gr., G, Daemen
Rookie of the Year: Messiah Mallory, Fr., F/C, Staten Island
Coach of the Year: Tobin Anderson, St. Thomas Aquinas