ST. LOUIS - The announcement of the 2016 All-Missouri Valley Conference Teams brought two awards for Bradley's young team Tuesday: guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and forward Luuk van Bree both were selected to the five-player MVC All-Freshman Team, according to a league-wide vote of head coaches, sports information directors and media.
A 6-foot-3 combo guard from London, England (Bristol Academy), Lautier-Ogunleye is Bradley's leading scorer this season and top scoring freshman in The Valley at 9.7 points per game. Currently ranked eighth among all freshmen in the country by logging 1,006 minutes, Lautier-Ogunleye also ranks eighth among all MVC players at 32.5 minutes per game this season. In addition to his scoring, he leads the Braves with 3.0 assists per game, he is tied for second with 20 steals and he ranks fourth in both rebounding (4.1 rpg) and blocked shots (10).
Since he was moved into a reserve role Jan. 30, Lautier-Ogunleye has improved his numbers down the stretch by averaging 14.2 ppg and 3.9 apg in the last nine games, despite coming off the bench in eight of those outings.
A 6-foot-9 forward from Venray, The Netherlands (Canarias Basketball Academy), van Bree is second among The Valley's freshman scorers and third overall for the Braves at 8.5 points per game. Van Bree also ranks second among Valley freshmen and second for the Braves with 4.6 rebounds per game and he is tied for second on the team with 13 blocked shots this season.
Van Bree leads all MVC freshmen with 44 3-pointers and is in position to challenge for the second-best total of 3-pointers made by a Bradley freshman. Heading into the MVC Tournament, van Bree's 44 triples are the most by a Bradley freshman since Sam Maniscalco set the record wtih 55 freshman 3-pointers in 2007-08 and he needs three more to equal 2016 MVC Hall of Fame inductee Anthony Parker for the second-best freshman total.
Bradley will begin play in the 2016 MVC Men's Basketball Championship Thursday as the ninth seed and the Braves will face eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago at 6 p.m. in the tournament's opening game. The Bradley-Loyola winner will take on regular-season champion Wichita State in Friday's 12 p.m. quarterfinal game. All six games in the first two rounds of Arch Madness will be televised on the MVC-TV Network.
