Sports News: Spring 2003

Tuesday, March 4, 2003

ZALESKI NAMED COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

ANNVILLE, PA --- Sophomore forward Brandon Zaleski (Hackettstown, NJ/ Hackettstown HS) of the Moravian College men’s basketball team has been named the 2003 Commonwealth Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, and Zaleski earned a spot on the All-Conference First Team announced Tuesday.

Joining Zaleski on the All-Conference First Team were senior Darren Pugh and sophomore J.D. Byers of Lebanon Valley College, senior Jon English from Elizabethtown College and junior Chris Zimmerman of Susquehanna University. Messiah College freshman Gian Paul Gonzalez was honored as the Commonwealth Rookie of the Year while Susquehanna head coach Frank Marcinek was named the Commonwealth Coach of the Year.

Zaleski has helped the Greyhounds post a 16-10 overall record and a return to the postseason for the first time since the 1996-97 season. Moravian lost to eventual Commonwealth champion Elizabethtown College, 71-62, in the Commonwealth Semifinals, and the Greyhounds will compete in the 2003 Eastern College Athletic Conference Southern Championships beginning Wednesday, March 5th in a quarterfinal game at top seeded Franklin & Marshall College. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. Moravian is seeded eighth in the tournament, and the Greyhounds are making their first appearance in the ECAC since winning the tournament in 1984.

Zaleski leads the Greyhounds in scoring at 18.4 points per game and in rebounding at 7.5 boards a contest. Both numbers rank Zaleski second in the Commonwealth Conference. Zaleski also has a team high 11 blocked shots and he has contributed 34 steals, 22 assists and ten three-pointers. Zaleski is shooting 49.7 percent (179 of 360) from the floor, 38.5 percent (10 of 26) behind the three-point line and 84.1 percent (111 of 132) at the foul line. He is ninth in the Commonwealth in field goal percentage and fourth in free throw percentage.

In 51 career games, Zaleski has moved within 44 points of becoming the 17th player in Moravian history to score 1,000 points and possibly the first to reach the milestone as a sophomore. Zaleski has also won numerous awards in his career including being named the Commonwealth Conference Rookie of the Year and a Second Team All-Conference selection a year ago. This season, Zaleski has been named the Lehigh Valley Small College Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, the Most Valuable Player of the Emmanuel (MA) Tap-Off Tournament and to the All-Tournament Team at the Greyhound Rock Classic.