Skidmore’s Edvinas Rupkus men’s Player of the Year
TROY, N.Y. » Junior guard Edvinas Rupkus earns his first Liberty League Player of the Year award to lead the Skidmore College men’s basketball team, as the Liberty League announced its end of season awards on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
In addition, freshman guard Noah Meren was named to the Liberty League’s All-Rookie team.
Rupkus joins former teammate Aldin Medunjanin ‘17 as Skidmore earns back-to-back Player of the Year honors. Dana Martin ‘05 also earned the award after the 2004-05 season.
Rupkus was arguably the most efficient scorer in the league this season, leading the league in scoring with a schoolrecord 594 points (22.1 ppg), shooting 50.5 percent from the field (third in league), 42 percent from 3-point range, and 82.6 percent from the free throw line (sixth). He added a team-leading 6.5 rebounds, with 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game. The junior has tallied five double-doubles on the season, scoring 20 or more points 16 times, including a season-high 39 points in the Liberty League quarterfinal win against Ithaca last Tuesday, earning Liberty League All-Tournament honors in the process.
Rupkus will enter his senior season in third place on the career scoring list with 1,655 career points, just 34 points away
from the all-time mark of 1,689 points.
Meren was fourth among all Liberty League freshman in scoring at 10.5 points per game, adding 5.0 rebounds per game. The human highlight maker saved some of his best stuff for big games, tallying 19 points against then-No. 2 Middlebury on Dec. 8, a careerhigh 21 points at Hobart on Jan. 13, and a 16-point, career-high 13 rebound performance at Hobart in the league semifinal win. He was named to the Liberty League All-Tournament team for his efforts. He came on strong at the end of the season, averaging 12.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.5 steals per game in the month of February.
The Thoroughbreds (1512, 9-9 Liberty League) advanced to the Liberty League Championship game for the third time in four years in the 2017-18 season. They were ranked as high as 16 in the d3hoops.com national rankings, going on to earn a league postseason spot for the ninth straight season.