BEVERLY, Mass. – Following a season capped with the Black & Gold's 18th straight postseason appearance, the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's basketball team earned its fair share of postseason honors, including two major awards, presented by the Commonwealth Coast Conference league office Friday morning.
Junior Tyler Stewart (East Taunton, Mass.) captured one of two major awards for the Leopards, earning CCC Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors along with a spot on the All-CCC First Team, after earning second team honors a season ago. Senior Sam Goy (Derry, N.H.) earned CCC Scholar-Athlete honors while also notching a spot on the All-CCC Third Team. Junior Jack Connell (Walpole, Mass.) rounded out the Leopards' honorees by earning a spot on the All-CCC Second Team for the second year in a row.
Senior Tavon Jones (Linden, N.J.) of Nichols garnered CCC Player of the Year honors while Western New England junior Jake Harrison (South Boston, Mass.) earned CCC Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors alongside Stewart. Freshman Elijah McKinney (Nashville, Tenn.) of Endicott was named CCC Rookie of the Year, and Brock Erickson of Nichols was selected as CCC Coach of the Year. Gordon earned Team Sportsmanship Award honors.
Stewart was a threat on both sides of the court, ranking first in the conference with a .645 shooting percentage and 1.9 blocks per game and was third in scoring with 19.6 points per game. He also averaged 9.9 rebounds per game, the second-highest conference wide. The junior became the 18th Wentworth men's basketball student-athlete to score 1,000 points in his career, surpassing the milestone in the Leopards' win over WNE in their regular-season finale. Meanwhile, the forward drained a career-high 36 points versus Suffolk on February 3 and totaled a career-high 22 rebounds, one shy of tying the single-game program record, in the Leopards' opening round matchup of the playoffs with Roger Williams.
Stewart currently ranks first all-time in the program's history in the following: field goal percentage (.639), average offensive rebounds (3.3), and average blocked shots (1.3). In addition, the forward ranks second in average rebounds with 7.9. This season, he set the program record for most offensive rebounds in a season with 101 and average offensive rebounds in a season with 4.0 per game.
Goy completed his career with his best season to date, averaging 14.7 points per game, eleventh-best in the CCC, and 6.4 rebounds per game. The senior averaged 30.9 minutes per game along with 1.7 assists per game and just under one steal per game. The guard dropped a career-high 27 points against Suffolk on January 6 and surpassed ten or more points in 17 of the 22 games he played this season. A business management major, Goy currently holds a 3.4 grade-point-average and has completed two co-ops in his time at Wentworth.
Goy's 2023-24 season places him third all-time in single season three-point field goal percentage as the senior shot .462 percent from behind the arc.
Connell earned his spot on the second team by averaging 17.2 points per game, seventh-best in the league, 3.2 assists per game, and was fourth in the league in three point field goal percentage. The junior became the 17th student-athlete ever to score 1,000 points in his career, surpassing the plateau in the Leopards' win over Gordon on February 10. In addition, the guard sank a career-high 37 points against the University of Saint Joseph's (Conn.) back on December 30.
Connell's career average of 3.1 assists per game currently ranks him fourth all-time while his total three-point field goals made (154) ranks fifth all-time.
The Leopards finished the season 14-12, including going 9-7 in league play to finish fourth. For the second season in a row the Black & Gold hosted a CCC Tournament contest.
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