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Morningside men’s basketball head coach Jim Sykes has announced another high school recruit who will join the Mustangs next season.
The latest recruit is Michael O'Neal, a 6-2 guard from Sergeant Bluff-Luton High School.
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 Nick Thompson, a 6-6 senior forward from Bettendorf, Iowa, received the Most Valuable Player Award for the Morningside College men’s basketball team when the Mustangs hosted their post-season awards banquet on Saturday.
Thompson was the Mustangs’ leading rebounder and co-scoring leader this past season with averages of 14.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He also topped the Mustangs’ with 42 blocked shots for an average of 1.3 rejections per game and was the team’s best free throw shooter with 120 free throws in 149 attempts for 80.5 percent. Thompson made 162 of 337 field goal attempts for 48.1 percent and 33 of 93 3-point field goal attempts for 35.5 percent.
Thompson had 11 double-doubles during the season with game highs of 27 points in an 83-75 victory against Mayville State University on Nov. 14 and 18 rebounds in a 74-68 triumph against Johnson & Wales University on Nov. 8. He was the leading rebounder in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with an average of 9.6 caroms per game in the Mustangs’ 18 league contests.
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 Seth Atkins, a 6-6 senior center from Grand Island, Neb., displayed a knack for getting to the free-throw line throughout his Morningside College men’s basketball career.
In fact, nobody in Morningside history did it better than Atkins, who went to the foul line a whopping 563 times during his four-year career to break the former Morningside record of 544 career free throw attempts by Tim West from 1995-99.
Aside from breaking the Mustangs’ career record for free throw attempts, Atkins also broke the Mustangs’ single-season record this season with 225 free throw attempts to break the former Morningside record of 213 attempts by Tom Betz in 1988-89.
Atkins was the Mustangs’ leading scorer this season with 478 points for an average of 14.9 points per game and was the Mustangs’ second leading rebounder with an average of 6.7 caroms per game.
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 Brady Helmink, a 6-2 senior guard from Fairbury, Neb., has been named a 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete.
Helmink has a 3.90 cumulative grade point average (GPA) with a major in chemistry. He also received Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete recognition as a junior.
Helmink averaged 7.6 points and 2.0 rebounds per game as one of the Mustangs’ starting guards this past season.
Student-athletes must be of at least junior academic status and have a minimum GPA of 3.50 in order to be eligible for Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete honors.
Morningside posted a 24-8 record and won the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular season championship with a 15-3 league mark this past season en route to its third NAIA Division II National Tournament appearance in the past four seasons.
Click here for the complete list of Daktronics-NAIA Men's Basketball Scholar-Athletes.
 Nick Thompson, a 6-7 senior forward from Bettendorf, Iowa, has been named a second-team NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball All-American.
Thompson averaged a team-high 14.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per game for the Mustangs this past season. Thompson had 11 double-doubles and was the Mustangs’ leading rebounder in 23 of their 32 contests. He also led the Mustangs with 42 blocked shots for an average of 1.3 rejections per game. Thompson ranked second on the team with 66 assists and third with 35 steals for averages of 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He made 162 of 337 field goal attempts for 48.1 percent, 33 of 93 3-point field goal attempts for 35.5 percent, and 120 of 149 free throw attempts for a team-high 80.5 percent.
In addition to Thompson, the Mustangs’ Seth Atkins, a 6-6 senior center from Grand Island, Neb., was named an honorable mention All-American.
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Morningside’s season ended with an 84-73 loss against fifth-ranked Black Hills State University in Friday’s second round action at the NAIA Division II National Tournament in Point Lookout, Mo.
The Mustangs, who closed the books on a 24-8 campaign, never led against a surging Yellow Jacket team that extended their winning streak to 14 games with an all-sophomore starting lineup.
Eddie Marrs scored 21 points to lead a group of four Mustang scorers in double figures.
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 Morningside’s Seth Atkins, a 6-6 senior center from Grand Island, Neb., and Nick Thompson, a 6-7 senior forward from Bettendorf, Iowa, were each named to the 2008-09 All-Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Men’s Basketball First-Team as selected by the league’s head coaches.
The senior duo helped lead the Mustangs to this year’s outright GPAC regular season championship with a 15-3 league record. Morningside will take a 23-7 overall record into the NAIA Division II National Tournament to be held March 11-17 in Point Lookout, Mo.
Morningside's Eddie Marrs made the All-GPAC second-team and two other Mustangs made the All-GPAC honorable mention list.
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 Eddie Marrs, a 5-9 junior guard from Omaha, Neb., has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Men’s Basketball Player of the Week.
He averaged 24.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals, and 2.5 assists in the Mustangs’ two victories last week to help Morningside wrap up the GPAC’s regular season championship with a 15-3 league record. The Mustangs, 23-6 overall, clinched a NAIA Division II National Tournament berth by winning the GPAC title.
Marrs scored a game-high 35 points for the Mustangs’ top individual scoring performance of the season in Morningside’s 84-77 overtime victory against Dordt College last Saturday in Sioux Center, Iowa. Marrs scored 25 of his points after the intermission, including 11 of the Mustangs’ 15 points in the overtime session. Aside from his 35 points, Marrs also grabbed nine rebounds to match his season’s high to go along with game-high totals of four assists and four steals.
Earlier in the week he made the winning basket with 14.9 seconds left in the Mustangs’ 65-64 victory at Northwestern College. Marrs scored 13 points to go along with a game-high four steals against Northwestern.
 Morningside College is ranked 11th nationally in the final regular season NAIA Division II men’s basketball poll released on March 4.
The Mustangs will take a 23-7 record into the NAIA Division II National Tournament scheduled for March 11-17 in Point Lookout, Mo. The Mustangs qualified for the national tournament as the regular season champion of the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with a 15-3 league record. Morningside won the GPAC regular season championship for the second year in a row.
Morningside is one of three teams from the GPAC in the final NAIA Top 25. Dakota Wesleyan University is ranked 14th and Briar Cliff University is ranked 18th.
Click here for the complete NAIA Top 25.
 Morningside has been tabbed for a third place finish in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Pre-Season Coaches' Poll.
The Mustangs graduated four starters from a NAIA Division II National Tournament team that won last year's GPAC regular season title with a 16-2 league record.
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