EDINBORO, Pa. (March 21, 2016) –
John Moon's incredible junior season again was recognized at the highest levels on Monday, when the 7-foot center from Crescent became Oklahoma Christian's first-ever men's basketball All-America selection in NCAA Division II.
Moon received honorable mention on the Conference Commissioners Association's Division II All-America list, one of only 20 players recognized from around the nation.
It's the 15th straight season after which at least one OC player has been named as an All-American on the NAIA (through 2012), National Christian College Athletic Association (2013-15) or Division II honor teams. Moon received honorable mention on the NCCAA list in 2015.
Moon is the first Heartland Conference player to receive Division II All-America honors since Kevin Kotzur of St. Mary's (Texas) in 2013.
"I'm very pleased and excited for John on his All-American selection," OC coach
Dan Hays said. "It is very hard to receive this honor at the NCAA Division II level. John had an outstanding season and he earned this award with his hard work and strong performance."
The All-America honor – voted upon by sports information directors from around the nation – is the latest in a slew of awards received by Moon in the wake of a junior season during which he shattered numerous Heartland Conference and OC records and tied a couple of NCAA marks.
Moon earlier was named to the Academic All-America first-team list by the College Sports Information Directors of America, the first OC player so chosen for that prestigious honor. He was a first-team All-South Central Region selection and the website OklahomaSports.net named him as the player of the year among Oklahoma's 12 Division II programs.
While he wasn't named as the Heartland Conference's player of the year by league coaches, he did receive first-team all-conference honors and was chosen as the leagues' defensive player of the year.
Moon was far and away the most dominant player in the Heartland all season, earning recognition as the league's player of the week four times, the only player so honored more than once.
He became only the second player in league history to lead the conference in three major stat categories – scoring (23.9 points per game), rebounding (9.1 per game) and blocked shots (70, or 2.5 per game) – despite facing routine double- and triple-team defensive schemes.
Moon broke the league's single-season record for field goals (257) and its career record for blocked shots (164), as well as its single-game records for points (50 vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State), field-goal percentage (20-of-20, against OPSU) and overall field goals. The field-goal percentage mark also was an all-division college basketball record.
He's already seventh in the league in career scoring after posting the second-highest single-season point total in league history with 669. He became the first player in league history to post multiple games of 40 points or more, having also scored 41 points in a win over St. Edward's (Texas).
His 50-point game against Panhandle State was the fourth-highest this season in Division II and his 20 field goals in that game was No. 2 in D-2 in 2015-16. Moon finished the season 12th in scoring in Division II and 14th in blocked shots per game, 16th in total blocks and 28th in field-goal percentage.
The first-team All-America list consisted of senior center Ryan Stephen of Colorado Mesa (who was named as the Ron Lenz National Player of the Year), senior forward Seger Bonifant of West Liberty (W.Va.), senior guard Taevaunn Prince of Missouri Southern, senior forward Daniel Jansen of Augustana (S.D.) and junior guard Devin Schmidt of Delta State (Miss.).
Second-team honorees were senior swingman Yunio Barrueta of Barry (Fla.), senior guard Keenan Palmore of Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.), senior forward Kyle Cooper of Hillsdale (Mich.), senior guard Desmond Williams of Southern Connecticut State and senior guard Tyree Gaiter of Notre Dame College (Ohio).
On the third-team list was senior forward Conner Beranek of Nebraska-Kearney, senior forward Andy Avgi of Western Oregon, senior guard Gerel Simmons of Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.), senior forward Casey Schilling of Augustana (S.D.) and junior guard Sekou "Suki" Wiggs of Alaska-Anchorage.
Receiving honorable mention were Moon, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State, Michael Smith of California Baptist, Terrell Harris of Georgia College and Eric Siefert of Wheeling Jesuit (W.Va.).
