CARMEL, Ind. - The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) announced its men's basketball post-season awards on Wednesday (Feb. 26) morning and four members of the Franklin men's basketball team collected all-conference awards.
Senior
Lynn King was named Second Team All-HCAC for the second year in a row with seniors
Jessie Morgan III and
Cody Samples joining sophomore
Cooper Matthews on the league's honorable mention team.
King picked up the third all-conference award of his career and heads into the weekend leading Franklin with 11.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. The South Bend, Ind.-native put up a pair of double-doubles and set a new career-high in scoring with 23 points in a win over Hanover back on Dec. 4.
Morgan collected honorable mention honors for the second straight year, starting all 26 games for the Grizzlies heading into this weekend's HCAC semifinals. The South Bend, Ind.-native averages 11.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while shooting 52.6% from the field and 71.2% from the free throw line with his 22 blocks leading all Franklin players.
Samples earned the first all-conference award of his career and joins Morgan as the only players to start all 26 games so far. The Versailles, Ind.-native is averaging 10.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 51.3% from the field, 38.9% from three and 72.1% from the free throw line.
The final all-conference recipient, Matthews broke into the starting lineup as a sophomore and has started 18 of the Grizzlies' games to date. The Hamilton, Ohio-native sits second on the team at 11.4 points per game with 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest and a team-high 53 steals. Against Transylvania back on Jan. 15, Matthews etched his name in program history when he matched the program record for steals in a game with eight in a win over the Pioneers.
Franklin continues HCAC Tournament play on Friday (Feb. 28) night, taking on third-seeded Rose-Hulman in the tournament semifinals hosted by Anderson University. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.
