Piccinini Named Winter Scholar-Athlete of the Year

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Conference Carolinas is proud to announce the 2011-2012 Winter Scholar Athletes of the Year as recently voted on by the student-athlete affairs committee. This prestigious award is presented annually to a student-athlete in each sport for recognition of their outstanding academic and athletic achievements.

Eddie Piccinini has been named the 2011-12 Conference Carolinas Men's Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year. Piccinini helped led King College to the 2011-12 West Division Regular Season Championship and overall No. 1 seed for the conference tournament with a 23-8 overall and 14-2 conference record. He captained a Tornado team that earned their first-ever bid and No. 5 seed to the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship Tournament. In the Tornado's rematch against the fourth-seeded Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters, Piccinini had a remarkable day from all over the floor hitting 9-of-14 shots, 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. He finished with a career-high 32 points in the loss.

On the year, the junior from Orlando, Fla. led the team in scoring with 494 points, averaging 16.5 points per game. He was second on the team in assists with 76 and shot 43.2 percent from the field while netting 36.4 percent from beyond the arc. He contributed 27 ten points or more games, nine 20 points or more games, and delivered his career high 32 points against Lincoln Memorial University in the first round of the DII NCAA tournament. Academically, Piccinini was a member of the Men's Basketball Academic All-Conference Team while majoring in business management. He was also named King College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Male Student-Athlete of the Month for the month of January.

Pfeiffer University's Brittany Cox was named Women's Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year. Cox helped led her team to a 13-13 overall and 8-9 conference record. She was the leading scorer in the conference, averaging 20.8 points a game while also finishing fifth in the country in three point field goals per game and seventh in the country in scoring. Her standout season earned her Conference Carolinas First Team All- Conference honors. In the classroom, the sports management major completed the Fall 2011 semester with a 4.0 GPA to raise her cumulative GPA to a 3.92. She was honored on Pfeiffer University's Presidential Honor Roll and was appointed to Conference Carolinas Academic All-Conference Team. Cox was recognized nationally as a NCAA DII First Team Capital One Academic All-American and a member of the CoSIDA Academic All-American District 3 Team.

To be eligible for the honor, each member school submits candidates that are the best of the best for the conference from their sport while meeting certain qualifications. The qualifications include being a junior or senior student-athlete with a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or higher on a 4.0 scale in all work completed at their member institution that have played in a conference sponsored sport. The GPA is calculated based on the student-athletes cumulative average through the previous semester and each student-athlete must have attended their member institution for at least one academic year. Additionally, in order to qualify for the award the student-athlete must be a current member of the All-Conference Carolinas First, Second, or Third Team which is selected by head coaches from conference member institutions that nominate and then vote upon award winners.