Haslam, Bokosky land top honors on SCIAC postseason awards

ORANGE, Calif. – A historic run has led to an already historic award season for the Chapman University men's basketball team. Freshman Cam Haslam was named the Panthers' first-ever SCIAC Athlete of the Year while Mike Bokosky was awarded his first SCIAC Coach of the Year honors. Chapman had three more players honored on the All-SCIAC teams.

In addition to Haslam and Bokosky, junior guard Luke Hamlin was selected to the All-SCIAC first team and sophomore forward James Taylor was selected to the second team.

Despite graduating all five seniors from a year ago, Bokosky reloaded the Panthers for another title run in 2015-16. Chapman won the regular season title by three games and went on to capture the tournament title last week. He earned his third Coach of the Year award as he was also named the Association of Division III Independents Coach of the Year in 2008-09 and 2009-10. In his 24th year at Chapman, Bokosky guided the Panthers to their 23rd consecutive winning season and ninth 20-win campaign. His 435 wins are, by far, the most in Chapman's history.

Haslam, a freshman from Seattle, Wash., became the Panthers first-ever SCIAC Player of the Year after becoming one of the leading freshmen scorers in the country and leading the Panthers back into the NCAA Tournament. His 19.5 points per game in SCIAC games ranked second in the conference and was consistent with his conference-leading overall average of 19.4 ppg. He shot 42.8 percent from the floor against SCIAC opponents and shot at an even better 43.3 percent clip from three-point range. He scored at least 20 points in seven games during the SCIAC season, including back-to-back games when he dropped 37 points at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and 30 against Caltech. He also averaged just under three rebounds and two assists per game.

Another product of the Northwest, Hamlin was another one who burst on to the scene for Chapman. The junior from Snohomish, Wash. transferred from Seattle Pacific and took over the starting point guard duties. He ranked second on the team in scoring with 13.8 points per game in SCIAC games but led the conference with an average of 3.7 assists. He averaged just under five rebounds while coming away with a team-best 20 steals.

Taylor thrived in his first season as a starter on his way to second team honors. The sophomore from Laguna Beach led the SCIAC during the conference season with 54.2 percent shooting. He averaged 11.8 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds in the Panthers championship run while also ranking third in the conference with 26 blocked shots.

The Panthers look to extend their season tonight when they take on Whitman at 7 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship.

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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