SALEM, Va. (2/23/12) — Guilford College’s Josh Pittman (Archdale, N.C./Trinity) earned First Team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) basketball honors Thursday night at the league’s annual banquet in the Salem Civic Center. Teammate Gabriel Lowder (Yadkinville, N.C./North Forsyth) received Second Team All-ODAC recognition and Will Freeman (Fort Wayne, N.C./Richmond Senior (N.C.)) was named the league’s Rookie of the Year according to voting conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches.
Virginia Wesleyan College sophomore D.J. Woodmore captured the ODAC’s Kurt Axe Player of the Year Award and the Marlins’ Dave Macedo won the Bob Johnson ODAC Coach of the Year honor. Randolph College’s Colton Hunt garnered the ODAC/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete of the Year as chosen by conference sports information directors.
Pittman, a 6-1, 160-pound junior guard, is the fourth Quaker to earn consecutive First Team All-ODAC men’s basketball honors. He averages 13.4 points per game, which ranks 10th in the league, along with 4.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per outing. Pittman ranks fifth in the ODAC with a .778 free-throw percentage. His 2.7 assists per game stands seventh in the league and his club-high 1.8 steals per contest is 12th. Pittman has led Guilford’s scorers 11 times this season and has four 20-point games. He became Guilford’s 31st member of the 1,000-career points club this year and claimed the league’s Player of the Week Jan. 16. Pittman averaged 13.5 points per game in 16 ODAC contests this season.
Lowder, a 6-1, 185-pound senior guard, scores 13.3 points and 2.5 three-pointers per game. He ranks second on the team in scoring thanks to his career-high 62 three-pointers, which is ninth in school history. Lowder, who shoots 41.9 percent from beyond the arc, stands among the ODAC’s best in scoring (11th), three-point percentage (4th) and three-pointers per game (2nd). His team-leading 78.5% free-throw percentage is fourth in the league. Lowder has 18 games with 10 or more points, including five 20-point games. He set the school standards for three-pointers in a game and three-point field goal percentage when he hit 10-of-11 trifectas in a Feb. 1 win over Roanoke College. Lowder finished the game with a career- and ODAC season-high 36 points, which helped him collect the league’s ODAC Player of the Week Award Feb. 6.
Freeman, a 6-5, 200-pound center, is the Quakers’ first ODAC Rookie of the Year since Kerry Atkinson won the 2005 honor. Freeman is Guilford’s first forward off the bench and ranks third on the team with 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Freeman shoots 51.3% from the floor, the league’s ninth-best figure. He has 12 games with 10 or more points, including a career-high 16-point showing in the Quakers’ 60-55 road upset of second-ranked league foe Virginia Wesleyan.
Coach Tom Palombo’s Quakers recorded a 17-8 overall record and earned the ODAC Tournament’s number-three seed with an 11-5 league mark. Guilford seeks its second ODAC Tournament title in three years Friday (2/24) with an 8:00 p.m. quarterfinal contest against Randolph. The tourney concludes Sunday (2/27) and all games are played in the Salem Civic Center.