ST. LOUIS - Both members of the Bradley men's basketball team junior guard combination, Sam Maniscalco (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick H.S.) and Andrew Warren (Indianapolis, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit Prep), earned postseason recognition from the Missouri Valley Conference Tuesday. Maniscalco was named to the All-MVC second team, while Warren earned honorable mention all-league status in a 40-person vote of the league's head coaches, sports information directors, primary beat writers and radio play-by-play announcers.
The postseason honors are the first all-conference awards for both Bradley guards. Maniscalco was a member of The Valley's All-Freshman and All-Newcomer Teams in 2008, the same season Warren was voted to the league's Most Improved Team.
A 6-foot point guard, Maniscalco was tied as the league's fourth-leading scorer in conference play at 14.3 points per game. While finishing seventh in field goal percentage in conference play at 50.3 percent behind six players who all stand at least 6-feet, 8-inches tall, Maniscalco actually led the league in 2-point field goal percentage during the 18-game round-robin Valley schedule at a scorching 62.6 percent. The Valley's active leader with 325 career assists, Maniscalco ended the regular season by playing 137 consecutive minutes without a turnover, a period spanning four games into the second half of the Feb. 16 overtime contest at Indiana State.
Maniscalco will play in his 104th career game in Friday's quarterfinals of the State Farm MVC Tournament, equaling the league record for the most games by a third-year player. He is Bradley's active career leader in most every offensive category, including scoring with 1,111 points, as well as steals (104).
After missing the entire 2008-09 season due to a stress fracture in his foot, Warren showed little rust in 2009-10 and enters the State Farm MVC Tournament as the league's fourth-leading scorer overall at 14.4 points per game. The 6-foot-5 wing also ranks second in free throw percentage (.863), sixth in 3-point field goal percentage (.407) and fifth in 3-point field goals made per game (2.1). Warren was even better in conference play, ranking third in scoring at 14.7 points per game, first in free throw percentage (.928), fourth in 3-point field goal percentage (.434) and fifth in treys per game (2.0).
Warren will enter the State Farm MVC Tournament with 993 career points and in need of only seven more points to become the 44th member of Bradley's 1,000-Point Club.
Led by Maniscalco and Warren, Bradley (15-14, 9-9 MVC) will open play in this week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed. In a rematch of their regular-season finale Saturday in Omaha, the Braves will face fourth-seeded Creighton (16-14, 10-8 MVC) in the tournament's second quarterfinal game Friday at 2:35 p.m. at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
