IRVING, Texas – UTSA guard Jhivvan Jackson has been named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year and junior forward Deon Lyle garnered the league's Sixth Player of the Year honor, as voted by Conference USA head coaches and media members, the league office announced Tuesday.
NOTE: The C-USA Player of the Year and the C-USA Gene Bartow Coach of the Year will be unveiled on Wednesday.
Jackson, who also earned second team all-conference and all-freshman team honors, is the fifth-leading freshman scorer in the NCAA and the fifth-leading scorer in C-USA overall with an 18.4 average. He tallied three 30-point, 14 20-point and 25 double-digit scoring performances on the year while establishing a new UTSA freshman scoring record with 534 points. Jackson was named C-USA Freshman of the Week seven times and led the Roadrunners in scoring a team-high 18 times. The Bayamón, Puerto Rico native connected on three or more 3-pointers in 17 games and had 77 total treys. Jackson, the sixth player in UTSA history to earn conference Freshman of the Year honors and first since Jeromie Hill in 2011, had his outstanding rookie season cut short on Feb. 24 due to an injury.
Lyle is UTSA's second-leading scorer overall at 11.3 points per game and in conference games with a 12.5 average, having come off the bench in all but the final two games of the regular season. He leads C-USA and ranks 19th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage at 44.4 and third in 3-pointers per game at 2.8. Lyle has reached double-digit scoring 19 times, including 11 vs. C-USA opponents (each of last seven) and a career-high 33 in the regular season finale over Rice, which included a career-best eight 3-pointers. The Hastings, Nebraska, native leads UTSA with 88 three-pointers made and his 60 threes vs. C-USA foes is second in the league. Lyle has hit three or more 3-pointers in 15 games and is tied for fourth on UTSA in rebounding.
The fifth-seeded Roadrunners (18-13, 11-7 C-USA) open the Conference USA Championship at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday against 12 seed UTEP (11-19, 6-12 C-USA) in the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Conference USA award winners
Freshman of the Year
Jhivvan Jackson, UTSA
Newcomer of the USA
Nick King, Middle Tennessee
Defensive Player of the Year
Adjin Penava, Marshall
Sixth Player of the Year
Deon Lyle, UTSA
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