Trojans' Brite named league's player-of-the-year

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 9, 2015 1:48 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

MOUNT OLIVE -- To the victors go the spoils.

Regular-season champion University of Mount Olive captured three of Conference Carolinas' top four awards on the men's basketball scene this winter.

Junior Dontrell Brite earned the player-of-the-year award, while Kendall Hargrove became the Trojans' first-ever player tabbed as the conference's top defender.

Head coach Joey Higginbotham repeated the Conference Carolinas coach-of-the-year, an award the UMO alum has won on four occasions during his seven-year tenure on the bench. He guided the Trojans to a 28-3 mark, that included a school-record 17 straight wins that ended with a 68-66 upset loss to North Greenville in the conference tournament title game Sunday.

"Hey, I'm just a fat chubby guy sitting on the sidelines in a tie yelling at these guys," Higginbotham said. "They do the work. (The honor) is a compliment to these guys, a supportive administration, my assistant coaches, our managers -- an award for every fan, every player that's come into this gym. Our community is involved now and it's unbelievable.

"It's a team award."

Brite drew a first-team all-conference nod. Hargrove and Jordan McCain received second-team accolades. JUCO transfer JaQuan Blount was selected to the third team.

A point guard and Virginia native, Brite is the third player in UMO men's basketball history to collect the player-of-the-year award. He joins Chris McDonald (1998-99) and Kendrick Easley (2008-09). Brite broke the single-season school assists record against North Greenville.

"It's an honor to be named player-of-the-year with all the talent that's in the conference this year," said Brite, who averages 14.3 points a game and ranks 13th nationally with 5.8 assists an outing.

"It's a really big confidence boost for me (individually), but I'm focused on team accomplishments."

One of 16 finalists nationwide for the "Dark Horse Dunker" contest, Hargrove averaged just under two steals and one blocked shot per game. He logged nine double-doubles this season and shot 60 percent from the floor - second-highest in conference play.

"That was probably the award I was most excited about," Higginbotham said. "I thought he should have won it last year. The one thing that's special about that award is that it is a 100-percent by-in (to defense) award.

"Kendall was the guy who guarded the best player every night. But he was a good defender because we're a good defensive team and that's something everyone has fed off of all year.

"All of these awards are great, but it's a program thing. These guys are excited about what they've done. But the guys before them, if they hadn't done what they did, we wouldn't be sitting here (talking about them)."