STANDISH, Maine – The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) men's basketball All-Conference awards have been released and a pair of Saint Joseph's College players have earned accolades.
Freshman guard John Paul Frazier (York, Maine) has been selected as the 2023 GNAC Men's Basketball Rookie of the Year and is also listed on the GNAC All-Rookie Team and graduate student guard Griffin Foley (Portland, Maine) has collected Third Team All-Conference honors.
Frazier has been named as the GNAC Rookie of the Year and is listed on the All-Rookie Team after averaging 11.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting 51.5% (88-171) from the field, 48.3% (56-116) from three-point distance, and 61.1% (11-18) from the free throw line in 21 games this winter.
The freshman sharpshooter led the conference – and ranked third in NCAA DIII Men's Basketball – in three-point shooting percentage and netted the second-most three-pointers by a freshman in program history, ranking behind Brian Wilson, who connected on 59 trifectas during the 1987-88 campaign.
Frazier is the first SJC men's basketball player to garner conference Rookie of the Year honors since Leroy Gore was named as the 2001 Maine Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year.
Foley collects Third Team All-Conference accolades for the second-consecutive season after averaging 14.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per contest while shooting 46.7% (143-306) from the floor, 30.1% (28-93) from three-point range, and 69.1% (76-110) from the FT line in 27 contests this year. He ranked third in the GNAC in assists (112) and assists per game, seventh in field goals made (143), eighth in points (390), and ninth in free throws made (76).
Foley capped his college career having scored 1,242 points with 302 rebounds, 233 assists, 76 steals, and 35 blocked shots in 92 games. He currently ranks 10th in program history in three-pointers made (140), 16th in scoring average (13.5 PPG), and 24th in points.
Saint Joseph's showed significant improvement under the watch of second-year Head Coach Tyler Ackley this winter, as the Monks posted a 15-12 overall record with a 10-7 mark in conference play en route to earning the #2 seed in the GNAC North Division. St. Joe's defeated #3S Regis College in quarterfinal action on February 21st, 79-63, to notch the program's first GNAC tourney triumph at home since 2015 before falling at University of Saint Joseph, the #1 team in the nation, in a semifinal three days later.
In 2022, St. Joe's went 9-18 overall with a 7-10 record versus GNAC foes and earned the #9 seed in an expanded tournament field (due to the pandemic).
