AUGUSTA,
Ga. - Augusta State’s Ben Madgen was selected as the 2009-10 Daktronics Southeast Region Player of
the Year Wednesday afternoon.With the selection, Madgen claimed the region’s top award for the second consecutive season. He was also named a first-team, All-Southeast Region selection for the second straight year. He was joined on the All-Region first team by ASU teammate and fellow senior Fred Braithwaite, along with Mars Hill’s Danny Sanders, Mount Olive’s Kendrick Easley and Tusculum’s Kyle Moore.
With the first-team selection, all five players are automatically eligible for Daktronics All-American honors. In addition to Madgen, Easley and Moore are first team All-Region selections for a second straight season.
A 6-4 senior guard from Williamstown, Australia, Madgen was a first-team, All-Peach Belt Conference selection for the fourth consecutive season in 2010 and earned PBC Player of the Year accolades on Friday, March 5. He became the conference’s all-time leading scorer midway through the season and is the only men’s player in conference history to score more than 2,000 career points. Madgen also became the second player ever to be named All-Conference four times and the third to be named both the PBC Freshman of the Year and the PBC Player of the Year during his career.
This season, Madgen led the conference in scoring at 18.4 ppg. He currently leads the Peach Belt Conference in both scoring and 3-point shooting percentage at 19 points a game and 46 percent from 3-point range. Madgen is also shooting 49 percent from the field and 86 percent from the free throw line.
Braithwaite, a 6-4 forward from Columbus, Ga., was a first team All-Peach Belt Conference selection, averaging 16 points and eight rebounds a game while shooting 57 percent from the field and 75 percent from 3-point range. He is currently ranked second in the PBC in rebounding and third in scoring.
Behind the play of Madgen and Brathwaite, ASU captured its third PBC regular-season championship in the last four years with a league record of 17-1. The Jags became the first program in conference history to reach the top of national rankings and enjoyed the winningest regular season in school history at 25-2.
Sanders was a first-team, All-South Atlantic Conference selection, averaging 23 ppg., to rank second in the SAC, Easley, a 6-1 senior guard from Norfolk, Va., earned Conference Carolinas Player of the Year honors for a second straight season, leading the league in scoring at 24 ppg. Moore, a 6-3 senior guard from Gainesville, Fla., was selected as the SAC Player of the Year for a second straight season, leading the league in scoring at 25 ppg. The voting, sponsored by Daktronics, Inc., was conducted by sports information directors from across the Southeast Region, which is comprised of the Peach Belt Conference, the South Atlantic Conference and Conference Carolinas.