Men's Basketball garners regional awards

WYOMING, Mich. - Five Great Lakes Christian College men's basketball players, as well as head coach Richard Westerlund, were given regional recognition at the NCCAA DII Mid-East regional tournament on Thursday at Grace Christian University.

Trent Temple was named the region's player of the year and made the first All-Region team. Isiah Reed and Kylan Shipp joined him on the first team while TQ Belcher was named second-team and Whitney Harris received an honorable mention. Westerlund was named the regional coach of the year.

Temple, a senior, contributed in every phase of the game, scored 13.2 points, five rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for GLCC, shooting 54.5 percent from the floor.

Reed, also a senior, was the team's most efficient outside shooter, makind 48.3 percent of his three-point attempts. He averaged 11.6 points per game, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

Shipp, a junior, led the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game. He set a program mark with 10 three-pointers in a game against Moody and played in all 29 games for the team.

The junior Belcher scored 12.7 points and averaged 4.9 rebounds per game while also pacing the team in free throw percentage (94.3%).

Harris, also a junior, averaged 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for Great Lakes, shooting an efficient 48.5 percent on field goal attempts.

Westerlund's team set a program record with 24 wins in 2021-22 and was ranked number one in the NCCAA DII national polls for most of the season, going undefeated in NCCAA play and earning the top seed in the regional tournament. They averaged 93.9 points per game and ended the regular season on a 13-game winning streak.

Also, each of Great Lakes' four seniors—Jahmal Eggleston, Evan Tacey, Trent Temple and Isiah Reed—received the NCCAA Legacy Award, which is given to seniors at NCCAA schools who played four years of college basketball.

Great Lakes will begin its pursuit of the school's first men's basketball regional championship in the semifinal on Friday night. The game will take place at Grace against a to-be-determined opponent.