The Great Lakes Valley Conference announced their postseason men's basketball awards and all-conference teams on Wednesday and four Peacocks were honored by the league
Jake Hilmer took home the GLVC Player of the Year,
Noah King was named to the first team,
Kyle Hrncir was listed on the all-defensive team and all-freshman team and
Caleb Delzell grabbed the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award.
With the postseason honors, Hilmer earned his second player of the year award and his third time as a member of a conference's first team in his career. The Walker, Iowa native finished the regular season with averaging 22.5 points (1
st GLVC), 4.3 assists (4
th GLVC), 1.9 steals (5
th GLVC) and 4.3 assists (3
rd GLVC). He shot 89.3% from the charity stripe, 42.7% from the field and 30.5% from beyond the arc. He topped the 30-point mark four different times against conference opponents, with his season-high versus GLVC teams coming against Illinois Springfield with 36 points. The graduate guard received GLVC Player of the Week honors twice, earned Division II National Player of the Week, and was named a Top 15 finalist in the Trevor Hudgins award, while making the cut to the Top 50 in the Bevo Francis Award, both given out by the Small College Basketball Association.
King grabbed his First Team All-GLVC accolade following his first season with the Peacocks. The Caledonia, Minn. native put up 16 points per contest, good for 5
th in the conference. In addition to his scoring habits, King averaged 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists, while shooting 45.2% from the floor, 74.5% from the foul line and 33.3% from long distance. He had a season-high of 23 points during the conference season versus Truman State. He notched a double-double against McKendree with 22 points and ten rebounds.
Hrncir earned his first-ever postseason awards as he was tabbed on the GLVC All-Defense and All-Freshman teams. The starting forward hauled in a team-high 6.8 rebounds (8
th GLVC) per game against conference opponents, while grabbing 39 steals (2.0 per game), good for fourth in the conference. He contributed 9.6 points per game while shooting 56.7% from the field. Hrncir recorded two double-doubles this season while netting his season-high of 18 points versus McKendree.
Caleb Delzell was Upper Iowa's recipient of the James R. Spalding sportsmanship award. These individuals must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. The honorees from full-time GLVC member institutions are now eligible to become one of their school's two Spalding Sportsmanship Award winners, which will be announced at the end of the academic year.
The Peacocks finished second in their debut season with the GLVC after posting a 15-5 mark, earning the No. 2 seed in the postseason conference tournament. Upper Iowa is set to face No. 7 Missouri-St. Louis in the first round of the GLVC Championship Tournament, hosted on the campus of Lindenwood in St. Charles, Mo. Game time is scheduled for Thursday, Mar. 7 at 8:15 p.m. CST.
