Long earns 1st-team All-Sun Belt honors

Shawn Long was named to the all-Sun Belt Conference first team for the second straight year, and sophomore Jay Wright was named to the third team, in an announcement made by conference officials Tuesday.
With the selection, Long becomes just the fifth Ragin’ Cajun in program history to earn all-SBC first-team honors in multiple seasons, also earning the nod following his sophomore campaign a year ago.
Long will enter this week’s SBC Tournament averaging 17 points and 10.3 rebounds per game while shooting .541 from the floor and .366 from three-point range. He has reached double figures in scoring in all 20 conference games this season and is the only player in the league to rank in the top five in both scoring and rebounding.
Additionally, the junior from Morgan City is one of just three players in the nation to average at least 17 points and 10 rebounds per game and is the nation’s leader among active players in career double-doubles with 51 and career rebounds per game at 10.3.
Long ranks ninth all-time at UL with 1,635 points and third in rebounds, needing just 10 more boards to join Roy Ebron and Marcus Stokes as the only players in Cajun history with 1,000 career rebounds.
Meanwhile, Wright has been outstanding in his first year at the point for the Cajuns, averaging 9.4 points, 3.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game in addition to playing stellar on-ball defense.
The sophomore from Rincon, Georgia, has been on fire of late, averaging 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists along with shooting .507 from the floor and .667 from three-point range during the Cajuns’ six-game win streak.
He has reached the 20-point mark twice this year in wins against Troy and Georgia Southern and earned his first double-double of his career with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a win at UT Arlington that ignited the Cajuns’ current late-season surge.
Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter was named the league’s player of the year for the second consecutive season, while Georgia Southern’s Jelani Hewitt was named the SBC defensive player of the year.
Troy’s Wesley Person earned the nod as the league’s top freshman, while ULM’s Keith Richard earned the Joe Gottfried Coach of the Year honor.
The individual awards and all-conference teams were released following a vote by the league’s head coaches and a selected media panel.
The Cajuns will open defense of last year’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament title as the No. 4 seed Friday at 5 p.m. at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. The Cajuns’ quarterfinal opponent will be the winner of the opening-round matchup between No. 5 UT Arlington and No. 8 Texas State.