BUFFALO — The Mid-American Conference announced their postseason honors on Monday afternoon as senior Blake Hamilton was named to the All-MAC Second Team, while sophomore CJ Massinburg was named Honorable Mention and redshirt sophomore Dontay Caruthers was named to the league’s All-Defensive Team.
Hamilton was selected to the all-league team for a second straight year as he leads the Bulls in scoring at 17.5 points per game and has a team-high 139 assists. Hamilton has twice been named the MAC East Player of the Week and three times he surpassed the 30-point mark, the most by a UB player since Javon McCrea in 2013-14. He had a career-high 36 points against Alaska-Anchorage earlier this year and then he followed that up with 33 points at Akron and 32 points on Senior Day against Bowling Green.
Hamilton scored 20 or more points in four of the final five games of the regular season and in all scored 20 or more points 13 times this past year. He had a career-best 11 assists against Nazareth and he twice flirted with triple doubles in home wins over Western Michigan and Central Michigan.
Massinburg is second on the team in scoring at 14.4 points per game and he has scored in double figures in 19 of his 23 games played this season. Massinburg was one of UB’s best closers on the season as he scored the final six points in a win at Central Michigan and he also hit two late free throws at Ohio to secure the victory. He had a season-high 22 points in a victory at Kent State and added 20 points in the win at Central Michigan.
Massinburg has also recorded the first two double-doubles of his career with 18 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Eastern Michigan and 16 points and 11 rebounds one game later against Ohio. Last year, Massinburg was named to the league’s all-freshman team.
Caruthers becomes the second Buffalo player named to the league’s All-Defensive team since it was formed last year. He has been one of the top defensive players in the league as he leads the Bulls with 58 steals, currently just one shy of 10th place in school history for single-season steals. He had a career-high five steals in back-to-back wins at Kent State and Western Michigan. Offensively, he had a career-high 18 points against Bowling Green.
Specialty awards will be announced tomorrow and Wednesday leading up to MAC Tournament Quarterfinal action beginning on Thursday at the Quicken Loans Arena.
