Men’s basketball guard Shasha Brown ’13 could not have had a better first season. He became a starter almost immediately and, he was the team leader in scoring, assists, and steals by the end of the season. His 17.8 points-per-game average was also good enough for fourth among all NESCAC players. With 3.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game, he led the team in each category and ranked sixth and fourth, respectively, among NESCAC players. Brown was even 11th in the conference in free-throw percentage at 76 percent; he was also one of five players among the top 15 to attempt 100 shots from the charity stripe. Brown’s 1.66 assist-to-turnover ratio also ranked fifth in the NESCAC. This strength in his all-around game was recently recognized, as Brown won the conference Rookie of the Year award after a vote of the conference’s coaches.
Brown led the team in points in 15 of 25 games this season, and his 17.8 points per game average was the highest ever for a Wesleyan first-year player. His best scoring effort came in a 106-91 loss at Williams on Nov. 24, when he scored 35 points in just his third collegiate game. He hit the 30-point plateau once again in a quadruple-overtime 98-93 victory against Tufts, in which he also had an outstanding five steals. Brown failed to reach double digits in scoring only four times over the course of the season.
Brown was the third Cardinal to receive NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors this season. Men’s soccer goalkeeper Adam Purdy ’13 got the nod after posting a 0.50 goals-against average, 88.6 save percentage, and 10 shutouts in a 12-2-5 season, and women’s soccer forward Laura Kurash ’13 did the same after leading the team in scoring with 15 points (six goals, three assists) despite being limited to just seven games due to injury.
Brown’s strong all-around game led the Cardinals to 11 wins, the most for Wesleyan men’s basketball in five years, and a berth in the NESCAC tournament for the first time since 2004-05.
They were unable to defeat eventual national runner-up Williams, ranked second nationally, in the first round of the tournament, but nonetheless, the season was a step in the right direction for the Cardinals. Despite losing leaders Kevin Scura of ’09 and Jeremy Kaminer ’10, they will look to improve upon this year’s eighth-place NESCAC finish and 11 wins next year with the help of a strong batch of underclassmen.
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