KANSAS CITY, Mo. –- Centenary College senior forward James Sapp and Texas Lutheran University senior point guard Sterling Holmes have been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-South Region Team in an announcement made yesterday. NABC All-District Team Full Release
Sapp was named to the First Team while Holmes was a Second Team selection. Both were honored as Second Team All-South Region selections by D3hoops.com earlier in the week.
A two-time SCAC Player-of-the-Year (2014-15 and 2016-17) and three-time All-SCAC First Team honoree, Sapp finished this season averaging 21.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, ranking 34th and 41st in the country, respectively. He is the first player since 2007-08 to lead the league in both scoring and rebounding. Sapp finished the 2016-17 season with 15 double-doubles and his career with 38, the second-straight season averaging a double-double.
With 263 rebounds this season, he broke the SCAC career record and finished his career with 953 rebounds – along with 1,551 points. In his final home game of his career, he became only the fifth Gent and the first player in conference history to finish with more than 1500 points and 900 career rebounds.
Holmes is an All-Region selection for the second straight year, having earned First Team All-South honors a year ago. A First Team All-Conference selection in the SCAC for a second straight season, Holmes was the 2016 SCAC Player of the Year and the 2016 SCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player.
He led TLU to three straight SCAC Tournament Championships and to three consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearances, and was a part of two SCAC regular-season championships. Holmes was named to three consecutive SCAC All-Tournament teams.
In 2016-17, Holmes ranked fifth in the SCAC in scoring, averaging 16.7 points per game, and he shot 45.1% from the field. Holmes also grabbed 5.6 rebounds per game while dishing out 2.9 assists per contest.
NABC ALL-SOUTH REGION TEAM
| First Team |
Second Team |
| Hank Aldous, Hendrix | Sterling Holmes, Texas Lutheran |
| Charles Bryant, Averitt | Adam Gigox, Emory |
| Zack Burnett, Lynchburg | Carson Long, Guilford |
| *Nathaniel Jack, Hardin-Simmons | Khory Moore, Virginia Wesleyan |
| Jeff Martin, LeTourneau | Joe Neal, Concordia (Texas) |
| James Sapp, Centenary | |
South Region Coach of the Year: Tom Palombo, Guilford
*South Region Player of the Year
Located in Kansas City, MO, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Forrest "Phog" Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men's basketball coaches.