ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
Kurt Axe, a senior point guard from Randolph-Macon College, has been chosen the men's basketball player of the year in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
The announcement was made Friday, on the eve of the 20th annual ODAC men's basketball tournament at the Salem Civic Center. Voting was done by the league's coaches.
Bridgewater's Bill Leatherman was selected coach of the year and Guilford forward Tharon Robinson was chosen freshman of the year.
No players from regular-season champion Roanoke College made the first team. Junior guard Jason Bishop headed up the second team. Three Maroons, Tim Braun, Blacksburg High School graduate Jon Maher and Northside graduate Nathan Hungate, earned honorable mention.
Joining Axe on the first team were Cam Dyer of Washington and Lee, Craig Tutt of Bridgewater, and two players from Emory & Henry: Dytanyon Norman and Floyd County High School alumnus Jason Light.
With Lynchburg's 72-45 victory Tuesday over Randolph-Macon, Roanoke clinched the regular-season championship. The Maroons finished atop the standings with a league mark of 14-4. Randolph-Macon wound up second at 13-5.
It is the second regular-season title for the Maroons under coach Page Moir, the first coming in 1993-94. Roanoke has won five ODAC regular-season titles and has gone on to win the tournament each of those years.
Today's first-round tournament pairings are: No.1 Roanoke vs. No.8 Eastern Mennonite, 1 p.m.; No.4 Hampden-Sydney vs. No.5 Virginia Wesleyan, 3 p.m.; No.2 Randolph-Macon vs. No.7 Lynchburg, 6 p.m.; and No.3 Bridgewater vs. No.6 Emory & Henry, 8 p.m. Hampden-Sydney is the defending champion.
Roanoke may have hit a snag when it found out Hungate is doubtful for today's game with the flu. The team has been battling the flu all week.
Axe solidified his player of the year status on Sunday when he scored 47 points against Emory & Henry.
Axe, from Ephrata, Pa., was sixth in the league in scoring (17.6 per game), 10th in assists (3.6), second in free-throw percentage (86.6) and sixth in 3-point percentage (39.6). He is the third Randolph-Macon player and the first since Troy Smith in 1993 to be named player of the year.
Leatherman, whose Bridgewater team finished third in the conference when it was predicted to place seventh, took coaching honors for the third time in his career. He also was voted the ODAC's top coach in 1987 and '88.
Joining Bishop on the second team were Lynchburg's Otis Tucker III, Randolph-Macon's Nathan Davis and Ryan Odom and Nate Schwab of Hampden-Sydney.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Axe (ran in New River only)by CNB