The ENC men’s and women’s basketball teams earned five postseason awards from the Commonwealth Coast Conference this season. Both teams performed well this year: the women made it to the conference quarterfinals, while the men’s team competed in the semifinals.

For the women’s team, senior Shardae Brown (Waterbury, Conn.) earned an All-CCC honorable mention for the second season in a row.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the conference for my consistent play in the last two seasons,” said Brown.

Brown also reached 1,000 career points during this past season, becoming the 10th female player in ENC history to achieve this milestone.

The men’s basketball team accrued four CCC awards for three people. Senior Chima Ezeigbo (Roanoke, Va.), who also scored his 1,000th point this season, was named to the All-CCC first team. He had previously garnered second team All-CCC honors in his freshman and junior years.

“This is special because other coaches consider me to be one of the best players in the conference, and that’s a great feeling,” said Ezeigbo.

When asked how much more memorable this award is to him as a senior, Ezeigbo replied, “Not the award, but how the campus came together to support our school—that is what made my senior year memorable.”

Freshman Jaylen Owens (Cleveland, Ohio), who also received an All-CCC honorable mention, was named conference Rookie of the Year. Owens was surprised to learn of his awards, but said that the recognition makes him “want to work even harder to prove people right, that I was the right decision for Rookie of the Year.”

Men’s basketball head coach, Jim Aller, received the CCC Coach of the Year award. Coach Aller sees this award as a way to put the entire team in the spotlight for their hard work in reaching the semifinals this year.

“The reality of the situation is, we ran the same drills at practice and the same plays during the games as we do every year. We were just running them with better players. It should be to their credit, not mine.”

With the women’s team making the playoffs for the second straight year, and the men’s team making the CCC semifinals after going 4-21 in 2011-12, both basketball programs have bright futures.