RICHARDSON, Texas (June 18) -- In a record-setting season that saw him earn a host of honors, Central Oklahoma's Sam Belt picked up the biggest one Wednesday when he was selected as the Lone Star Conference Male Athlete of the Year.
Belt was named the league's top male athlete after guiding the Bronchos to the LSC North Division championship, the LSC Tournament title and the NCAA Division II South Central Regional crown in his senior season, with UCO finishing a best-ever 28-6.
He's the first UCO student-athlete to receive the award since wrestler Cole Province in 2004, finishing ahead of Angelo State baseball standout Clay Calfee and Abilene Christian football star Jerale Badon in voting of league sports information directors.
West Texas A&M basketball All-American Emily Brister grabbed the women's award ahead of UCO volleyball star Lacie Allen and Tarleton State golf sensation Shraddhanjali Singh.
"This is an unbelievable honor and I'm really humbled by it," Belt said. "It was all about the team this past year and I've been fortunate enough to benefit from that. We had a great year and I couldn't have scripted my senior season any better."
Belt
was named LSC North Division Player of the Year and was MVP of the LSC Tournament before earning All-America recognition by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Basketball Times and Division II Bulletin.
A Broken Arrow product, Belt averaged 19.1 points and 7.8 rebounds a game in 2007-08, finishing seventh on UCO's season-season points list with 650. He played in every game (122) during his four-year UCO career and set school career records for 3-pointers made (263) and attempted (698) and free throws made (511) and attempted (652).
Belt also finished second in career scoring with 1,918 points and third in career rebounding with 845 boards.
