BOSTON, Mass. – Four members of Wentworth's men's basketball program have been honored by The Commonwealth Coast Conference, as announced this morning by conference commissioner Gregg Kaye. Junior forward Sam Herrick (Duxbury, Mass.) was named First Team All-TCCC, while senior forwards Matt Abbott (Falmouth, Maine) and Shane West (Milford, N.H.) were named to the conference's second team. Additionally, head coach Tom Devitt was voted by his peers as the league's coach of the year.
Herrick, who came to the Leopards by way of the University of New
Hampshire and Bryant, has been a force inside all season.
Starting 21 of the 24 games he has played in, he is averaging 11.6
points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game while
shooting just under 50 percent from the floor. He posted 11
double-doubles, including a stretch of six in a row. He
scored a career-high 19 points in a loss to New York University on
Jan. 2, and matched that in a win at Colby-Sawyer on Feb. 17 that
clinched a first-round home playoff game for Wentworth.
For the second season in a row, Abbott was named to the league's
second team. Starting three of the 24 games he played in,
Abbott averaged 9.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game,
while shooting 58.6 percent from the floor. He recorded a
season-high 22 points in a win at Newbury on Jan. 7 when he
connected on 11 of 15 shots from the floor and grabbed a
season-high 15 rebounds in a win at the University of New England
on Feb. 3. Abbott has played three seasons for the Leopards
after transferring from the University of New Hampshire.
During his 75 games in a Wentworth uniform, he has averaged 10.1
points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists and has shot nearly 55
percent from the floor.
A two-year captain of the Leopards, West enjoyed a fine senior
season for Wentworth. Starting all 24 games for the Black
& Gold, he averaged 9.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists
per game and shot 60 percent from the floor. He scored a
season-high 16 points in a loss to Wheelock on Nov. 18 and grabbed
a season-high 12 rebounds in a win over Curry on Feb. 13, while his
seven assists in a win over Regis on Jan. 30 tied a career
high. West has started 87 of the 103 games he has played in,
including starting every game the past three seasons. During
this time he has averaged 7.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists
per game while shooting a respectable 51 percent from the
floor.
For the second time in four seasons Devitt earns the league's coach
of the year honor. Picked to finish fourth in the pre-season
coaches' poll, Devitt has guided the Leopards to a 14-10 record and
a second-place finish in TCCC play with a 10-3 record. During
regular-season conference play, Wentworth featured one of the
league's stoutest defenses, topping the conference in offensive
rebounds (42.0) and ranking second among TCCC teams in scoring
defense (64.9 points per game), scoring margin (+8.7), field goal
defense (.395), defensive rebounds (33.4), and rebounding margin
(+8.6). Wentworth also ranked third in three-point field goal
defense (.285) and fourth in field goal percentage (.448) and
three-point field goal percentage (.348). The team's
impressive rebounding margin ranked sixth among all NCAA Division
III teams in the most recent national rankings. In his eighth
season (2000-01; 2003-present) as the Leopards' head coach, he has
compiled an 87-116 record – including a 55-49 mark over the
last four seasons – and has guided Wentworth to the
postseason for five consecutive seasons, including capturing the
conference title in 2007. That season he was also honored by
his peers as the league's top coach. A former assistant coach
at both Boston College and American University, Devitt has been on
the men's basketball staff at Wentworth since the 1999-2000
season.
Wentworth's second place finish in conference play gives the Leopards their first home playoff game since the 1998-99 season. The Leopards host seventh-seeded Western New England tonight at 7:00 p.m.