IRVINE, Calif. – After helping Dixie State win its sixth PacWest regular season title in program history, Trevor Hill was selected by PacWest coaches as the PacWest Player of the Year, Defender of the Year and All-PacWest first-team selection to lead the all-conference team.
Hill was joined among those receiving special awards by his head coach Jon Judkins, who was named the PacWest Coach of the Year after leading Dixie State to an 18-2 PacWest Record. Hawaii Pacific’s Niksha Federico is the PacWest Newcomer of the Year and Biola’s Isaiah Jones is the PacWest Freshman of the Year.
In his senior season, Hill averaged 15.3 points and 4.9 assists per game. Hill is also averaging 2.1 steals per game, which is the best in the league this year. Early in the season, Dixie State made a trip to Oregon, where Hill had back-to-back 30-point games to earn recognition as the PacWest Player of the Week. Between the two games, Hill totaled 65 points, 13 rebounds and six steals. In the win at Dominican, Hill had 18 points, six rebounds, seven assists and six steals to lead the Trailblazers to victory. The senior helped Dixie State finish the regular season on a 15-game winning streak to win the PacWest regular season title.
Former Desert Hills High School standout Brandon Simister was also honored as a first team All-PacWest performer for the Trailblazers. Simister averaged 15 points per game with a 42.6 field-goal percentage from 3-point territory this season.
The PacWest Tournament begins on Thursday in Riverside, California, with sixth-seeded Chaminade playing third-seeded Azusa Pacific at 5 p.m. and fifth-seeded Concordia-Irvine battling fourth-seeded Point Loma at 7:15 p.m. Cal Baptist will then play the higher-seeded surviving team at 5 p.m. Friday and Dixie State will take on the lower-seeded surviving team at 7:15 p.m. Friday. The PacWest championship game is Saturday. All of the tournament games are being played at CBU’s new basketball arena, the Events Center in Riverside.
Federico was the conference’s leader in both points and rebounds per game, averaging a double-double of 22.0 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. Federico recorded 17 double-doubles on the season, which led the PacWest and ranked sixth in the nation. Federico was once named the PacWest Player of the Week and was selected as the Defender of the Week four times. The first-team selection had 12 consecutive 20-point games early in the season and in the Sharks’ home finale, Federico scored a season-high 31 points as Hawaii Pacific took Azusa Pacific to overtime.
Jones was named the PacWest Freshman of the Year after helping Biola win five conference games in its first year in the PacWest. Biola’s biggest win came against rival Azusa Pacific, winning in front of a capacity crowd. In that game, Jones tallied six points, eight rebounds, a steal and an assist. Jones finished the year with a double-double against Dixie State with 20 points and 11 rebounds. On the season, Jones made 59.2 percent of his shots, including a 9-for-11 performance from the field at Concordia as he earned All-PacWest Honorable mention recognition.
Judkins is the PacWest Coach of the Year after leading the Trailblazers to a historic regular season that included an NCAA-era program record winning streak of 15 games that continues into the PacWest Tournament. Judkins led Dixie State to its sixth PacWest title in program history. Dixie State finished with a 156-42 record all-time in PacWest regular season games.
Petar Kutlesic from Azusa Pacific earned his third career all-conference selection, while Chaminade’s Austin Pope earned his second. Pop led the conference in assist-turnover ratio, while Kutlesic averaged 12.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
California Baptist finished PacWest play in second place and was led on the season by Kalidou Diouf, who averaged 18.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. Diouf had two 30-point games in the month of February, including a 35-point effort against Academy of Art, in which Diouf made 13 of 15 field-goal attempts.
2017-18 ALL-PACWEST MEN’S BASKETBALL AWARDS
Player of the Year
Trevor Hill
Dixie State
Defender of the Year
Trevor Hill
Dixie State
Newcomer of the Year
Niksha Federico
Hawai’i Pacific
Freshman of the Year
Isaiah Jones
Biola
Coach of the Year
Jon Judkins
Dixie State
2017-18 ALL-PACWEST MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM
FIRST TEAM
Kalidou Diouf*, California Baptist, C, Sr., Heidelberg, Germany/Alaska Anchorage
Niksha Federico, Hawaii Pacific, G/F, Sr., San Diego/San Diego State
Trevor Hill**, Dixie State, G, Sr., Sandy, Utah/Alta
Petar Kutlesic**, Azusa Pacific, F, Sr., Uzice, Serbia/Lee Academy
Austin Pope*,Chaminade, G, Sr., Burbank, Calif./North Idaho College
Brandon Simister*, Dixie State, G, Sr., St. George, Utah/Desert Hills
SECOND TEAM
Preston Beverly, Point Loma, F, Jr., Wildomar, Calif./Elsinore
Kendall Brown, Academy of Art, G, Sr., Corona, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto CC
Tad Dufelmeier*, Concordia, G, Sr., Canberra, Australia/Salt Lake CC
Jordan Heading*, California Baptist, G, Jr.-RS, Colonial Light Gardens, Australia/Sunrise Christian
Darien McClain, Azusa Pacific, G, Jr., O’Fallon, Ill./O’Fallon Township
JT Roach*, Concordia, G, Sr.-RS, Apple Valley, Calif./Citrus College
THIRD TEAM
Brian Chambers*, Concordia, G, Jr.-RS, Long Beach, Calif./Cypress College
Jeremiah Gray*, Dominican, G, Sr., Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake
Jonathan Janssen, Hawaii Pacific, F, Jr., Noosa Heads, Australia/Cleveland State
Corey Langerveld*, Azusa Pacific, F, Sr., Pullman, Wash./Pullman
Josh Rodriguez**, Point Loma, G, Jr., La Habra, Calif./Sonora
Ziggy Sattherwaite, Point Loma, C, Jr., Puyallup, Wash./Rogers
Honorable Mention: Adrian Antunez (Fresno Pacific), Sam Burt (Fresno Pacific), Grant Dressler (Chaminade), Zac Hunter (Dixie State), Isaiah Jones (Biola), Cory Lange* (California Baptist), Erik Scheive (Chaminade), Sterling Somers* (Point Loma), Trevor Treinen (Biola)
* – Previous All-PacWest selection
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