FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eight Teams with Multiple All-Conference Players.
MANSFIELD, Mass. – For the second-straight season, Bentley senior guard Zach Laput has been named the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year, as announced by the league office on Tuesday. He becomes the eighth player in NE10 history to win consecutive Player of the Year honors.
Laput joins a trio of NE10 Hall of Famers – Mario Elie, James Hector and Steve Dagostino – as well as four other players to win Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. The most recent to accomplish the feat was Saint Anselm's Tim Guers in 2018 and 2019.
Other major award winners included Southern Connecticut's Cherif Diarra as NE10 Defensive Player of the Year, New Haven's Jah'Likai King as NE10 Rookie of the Year and Saint Michael's Eric Eaton as NE10 Coach of the Year.
Laput, part of a six-man All-Conference First Team, was joined by Adelphi's Dayshaun Walton, AIC's Justice Ellison, Pace's Bryan Powell, Saint Anselm's Tyler Arbuckle and Southern New Hampshire's Matt Becht.
Overall, eight different NE10 programs had multiple All-Conference selections – including a league-high three from both Adelphi and Southern Connecticut. Among the 12 NE10 programs, all of them had at least one player selected to either All-Conference or All-Rookie status.
For a complete list of honorees, please see below. All-Conference teams are not based on position and are voted on by the league's head coaches.
Laput, a native of Beacon Falls, Conn., is the third player in Bentley history to win Player of the Year, following Jason Westrol (2010) and Jim Ferrer (1989). He ranked second among NE10 players in scoring with 19.7 points per game in the regular season, while averaging 19.9 points against conference opponents. Laput also averaged 7.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.4 steals per contest. He posted 17 games with 20 points or more, leading Bentley to the No. 3 seed in the NE10 Championship.
Diarra becomes just the second SCSU player to ever win Defensive Player of the Year and the first since Austin Carter in 2016. He led the NE10 in rebounding (9.5 per game) and was second in blocked shots (1.7 per game), helping the Owls become a top-five scoring defense in the conference. Diarra had six double-doubles during the regular season and shot a league-high 64.6% from the field. He also earned a spot on the NE10 All-Defensive Team, joined by his teammate Marty Silvera.
King had a big freshman campaign for New Haven on his way to Rookie of the Year, as he led the Chargers in scoring with 17.1 points per game – putting him in the top 10 of all NE10 players this season. He had 10 games with 20 or more points and three games with 30 or more. King, a seven-time NE10 Rookie of the Week, is the first New Haven player to ever win Rookie of the Year honors. He was joined by his teammate Ethan Simmon on the All-Rookie Team.
Eaton led Saint Michael's to one of the biggest turnaround seasons in league history, as the Purple Knights claimed their first NE10 regular season title since the 2000-01 season. At the start of the year, Saint Michael's was picked to finish last in the NE10 Men's Basketball Coaches' Poll. Instead, the Purple Knights went 17-5 in conference play – an 11-game improvement from the 2022-23 season - and earned the top seed in the NE10 Championship. Eaton, now in his fifth season at Saint Michael's, becomes the program's first coach to win NE10 Coach of the Year since Tom O'Shea in 1999.
������'�� �������������������� ������-�������������������� ��@BentleyFalcons Zach Laput named NE10 Player of the Year for the second straight season, as the league office announces its All-Conference honors! ��
— The NE10 (@TheNortheast10) March 5, 2024
��: https://t.co/wUKe4CNMZ3#NE10EMBRACE #NCAAD2 #D2MBB pic.twitter.com/pXGD9Q1TZr
Player of the Year: Zach Laput, Bentley
Defensive Player of the Year: Cherif Diarra, SCSU
Rookie of the Year: Jah'Likai King, New Haven
Coach of the Year: Eric Eaton, Saint Michael's
FIRST TEAM
Dayshaun Walton, Adelphi
Justice Ellison, AIC
Zach Laput, Bentley
Bryan Powell, Pace
Tyler Arbuckle, Saint Anselm
Matt Becht, SNHU
SECOND TEAM
Elijah Lewis, Adelphi
Tray Alexander, Pace
Romar Reid, Saint Michael's
Darrel Yepdo, Saint Michael's
Josh McGettigan, SCSU
THIRD TEAM
Kasey Draper, Assumption
Cash McClure, Bentley
Sean Trumper, Franklin Pierce
Josh Morissette, Saint Anselm
Marty Silvera, SCSU
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Mason Jackson, Adelphi
Daouda Dembele, Assumption
Tray Alexander, Pace
Darrel Yepdo, Saint Michael's
Cherif Diarra, SCSU
Marty Silvera, SCSU
Derrick Grant, SNHU
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM
Seth Brown, Adelphi
Jah'Likai King, New Haven
Ethan Simmon, New Haven
Trey Boyd III, Saint Rose
Christian Pierre-Louis, Saint Rose
ABOUT THE NE10
The NE10 is an association of 12 diverse institutions serving student-athletes across 24 NCAA Division II sports. Together we build brilliant futures by embracing the journey of every student-athlete.
Each year, 4,500 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships in 24 sports, making the NE10 the largest DII conference in the country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the NE10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.
