All-WHAC Release

The Aquinas men's basketball team had two players selected to the 2021-22 All-WHAC Teams, released by the league office on Wednesday afternoon (Mar. 2). This is coming off of a season where the Saints finished with a 16-14 overall record and came in sixth in the WHAC regular season standings after going 10-10 in conference play. AQ made the WHAC Tournament and faced third-seeded Madonna on the road, falling by a score of 79-63.
 
Two two individuals selected were Gabe Overway and Sammie Ryans, who both made the second team this season. This is the second straight season that Ryans has received second teams honors, while Overway was named to an All-WHAC team for the first time in his career.

After missing the first three games of the season, Overway came in and took over the main scoring role for the Saints with 17 points in 19 minutes of action in his first game back. After that, Overway went on to lead AQ with 15.9 points per game, a 57.9% field goal percentage, 7.7 rebounds per game, and 19 blocked shots, while playing a team-high 30.2 minutes per game. He collected eight double-doubles on the season, with his best game coming on Dec. 4 against Concordia where he finished with a career-high 27 points to go along with 13 boards. In the WHAC, Overway checked in with the fourth-best field goal percentage, then the fifth-most points and rebounds per game. He was selected as WHAC Player of the Week one time this season after averaging 22.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game from Nov. 15-21 as the Saints went 2-0 that week. He also was named to the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame All-Tournament Team when he averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds in two games. Most recently, Overway collected CoSIDA Academic All-District honors for his work in the classroom as well as on the court.
 
Ryans played in all 30 games for the Saints and was consistently a three-point threat along with being able to get to the basket and draw fouls. He led the team with a 35.8% three-point percentage along with an 85.1% free throw percentage. Ryans made the most threes (49) and free throws (74) on the season for AQ on his way to averaging 14.3 points per game in 27.5 minutes a game. He also averaged 4.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, while accumulating 21 steals. He had a career day against Madonna on Feb. 2 when he made 7-13 from downtown and 10-20 total shots for 33 points. Ryans also collected his first AQ double-double against Rochester on Feb. 16 when he finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Just like Overway, Ryans was also named to the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame All-Tournament Team after shooting 52% from the floor, 60% from three, and 90% from the charity stripe, while averaging 19 points and 5.5 rebounds in the two games.
 
The Saints finished with five men's basketball student-athletes on the WHAC All-Academic Team, which are juniors or above in academic standing with a cumulative 3.25 grade point average and have been at AQ for at least one full year. Aquinas' All-Academic honorees are: Trevor Ballard, Jesse Hillis, Justin Lary, Colten Nelson, and Overway.
 
Jared Dugener was also AQ's representative on the Champions of Character Team, as the Saints player that best represents the five core character values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership.