ISLE FILE
UH-Hilo names athletes of year
Advertiser Staff
The University of Hawai'i-Hilo honored John Smith and Fabianne Seben as its Male and Female Athletes of the Year last night at the Annual Vulcan All-Sports Banquet at the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort's Crown Room.
Smith, a 6-foot-2 senior guard for the Vulcans men's basketball team, was a first-team all-Pacific West Conference selection. He averaged 16.3 points per game and was a six-time PacWest honor roll selection.
Hilo finished 15-12 overall and 7-6 in the conference
Seben, a 6-1 junior middle hitter for the volleyball team, was an AVCA honorable-mention all-American, AVCA all-Region, PacWest first-team and second-team Daktronics West Region selection.
She was a three-time PacWest Player of the Week and MVP of the Montana State-Billings Invitational.
Vulcans tennis players Laurent Colombo and Christie Pagatpatan earned Academic Athletes of the Year recognition.
Team of the Year recognition went to the volleyball team, which finished 21-7 overall and second in the Pac West with a 10-4 record.
Volunteer of the Year recognition was given to UHH Professor Dr. Alton Okinaka.
BASKETBALL
BYU-HAWAI'I MEN SIGN JC PLAYER
The Brigham Young-Hawai'i men's basketball team has signed junior college transfer Rory Patterson for next season.
Patterson, a 6-5 swingman from Logan, Utah, played at Snow College in Utah the past two seasons.
He was named first-team all-region following his freshman season at Snow after averaging 14.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while knocking down 60 3-pointers.
This past season, Patterson was tabbed as a pre-season All-American but missed 10 games due to injuries and suffered a drop in production.
He still managed to average 10.1 points per game and 3.9 rebounds.
"Rory is a strong player and a good shooter. He will really help us next season," said BYU-Hawai'i coach Ken Wagner.
Patterson will join a Seasiders team that went 27-2 this past season and advanced to the NCAA II Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.
BYU-Hawai'i returns All-American Lucas Alves next season, Pacific West Conference second-team performers J.R. Buensuceso and Marques Whippy, and conference Freshman of the Year Jet Chang.