Beavers' Mychal Hill second team all HCAC
Junior Mychal Hill (London/Jonathan Alder) was selected second team men's basketball All-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference for the 2010-11 season. It marks Hill's second straight All-HCAC honor. He was a first team selection as a sophomore in 2009-10. Taking home his first All-HCAC award was sophomore Josh Fisher (Rockford/Parkway) who was named honorable mention.
Mychal Hill led the Beavers in scoring for the second consecutive season, bucketing 14.2 points per game on 94-of-238 shooting from the field. The junior converted 134-of-159 at the free throw line (84.3 percent) while draining a team-best 48-of-114 shots from distance (42.1 percent).
The primary ball handler for Bluffton, Hill dished out a team-high 67 assists (2.6 APG). He pulled down 2.8 rebounds per game and picked up 20 steals for the Beavers. After three seasons, Hill has 664 career points on 95-of-230 shooting from outside the arc (41.3 percent) and 197-for-240 at the stripe (82.1 percent).
Josh Fisher, who moved into the starting lineup midway through his freshman campaign, checked in with 9.7 points per game, the third-highest total on the team behind Hill and freshman post Will Pope (Somerville/Preble Shawnee). He was 84-of-222 (37.8 percent) from the field and 55-of-73 (75.3 percent) at the line.
Fisher pulled down 2.7 RPG, dished out 35 assists and came away with a team-high 28 thefts. He eclipsed the 30-point mark twice this season, dropping in a season-high 33 points during Bluffton's win over Manchester before a 31-point performance at Transylvania 10 days later. He currently needs just 32 points to reach the 500-point mark at Bluffton after just two seasons.
Bluffton rebounded nicely from a 2-23 mark in 2009-10, winning 13 more games than the Beavers did a season ago. The 15 wins equaled the 2008-09 squad for the sixth best finish in school history, just three victories shy of the record-setting 1984-85 team which went 18-10.
With the top seven scorers back in 2011-12, the Beavers, who handed Heartland Conference champion Manchester College one of its three HCAC setbacks, will have their sights set on that 18-win mark as well as their first Heartland Conference title.