PEORIA, Ill. -- Junior forward Marcellus Sommerville (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.) collected a trio of awards during the Bradley men's basketball team's annual postseason banquet Tuesday night at the Michel Student Center.
Sommerville won the Bob Carney Award for finishing with the team's best free throw percentage (.770) during the season and he won the teams' Most Valuable Player Award. This past season, Sommerville was a repeat selection to the All-Missouri Valley Conference first team after finishing third in the league in both scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (7.5 rpg). In addition, Sommerville was presented the 14th annual Kiwanis Builders Award, which recognizes leadership on and off the court.
Among the other team awards presented Tuesday, junior center Brandyn Heemskerk (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian H.S.) won the Academic Award, freshman center Patrick O'Bryant (Blaine, Minn./Blaine H.S.) was named the Most Improved Player and junior guard Tony Bennett (Chicago, Ill./Westinghouse H.S.) was voted the Best Defensive Player.
A three-time honoree on the Bradley Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll, Heemskerk is on pace to graduate this May and is planning to enroll in graduate school next fall while he competes as a fifth-year senior for the Braves. O'Bryant steadily progressed throughout the season, while setting the school record for blocked shots (75) by a freshman. The league leader in rejections per game, O'Bryant also finished fourth in the Valley in rebounding with 7.4 boards per contest. A first-year transfer from Pratt Community College, Bennett led the Braves and finished third in the league with 1.82 steals per game.
The final award presented Tuesday night was the A.J. Robertson Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors a former member of the men's basketball team. A member of the last Bradley squad to earn the nation's No. 1 ranking, Aaron Preece (Bradley ?51) earned the 2005 award. Preece was a key member of the 1949-50 squad that was ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press in the final regular-season poll, then went on to finish as the runner-up in both the NIT and NCAA Tournament. He was a senior on the 1950-51 team that also held the No. 1 ranking for two weeks in January and was the runner-up at the National Campus Tournament. A long-time supporter of Bradley Athletics, Preece won the inaugural Watonga Award in 1951, an award that is presented annually to a graduating senior student-athlete and recognizes athletic and academic success, as well as community service.
The postseason banquet normally is used to celebrate the careers of the team's seniors, but the 2004-05 Braves did not have a single senior among the 14 players on the roster.
