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Men’s Basketball: Elfrid Payton Named LABC Major College Player Of The YearPAYTON NAMED LABC MAJOR COLLEGE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns basketball player Elfrid Payton picked up another statewide honor when he was selected by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches as the recipient of the "Pete Maravich Memorial Award" as the Louisiana Major College Player of the Year for 2014.
The winner of the award is selected on an annual basis by the men’s college basketball coaches in the State of Louisiana. Payton, a Gretna native and three-year letterwinner for the Ragin’ Cajuns, will be presented the award at the LABC’s 40th Annual Awards Banquet on May 3 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Baton Rouge.
The statewide award is the second this month for Payton, who was voted as the Player of the Year by the Louisiana Sportswriters Association on April 12. He was honored earlier this month as the 2014 Lefty Driesell National Defensive Player of the Year and was named to the Lou Henson All-America Team. During the 2013-14 season, Payton earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Payton led the Sun Belt Conference in steals for the second consecutive year, recording 80 and finishing with a school-record total to 197. He finished second on the team in rebounds (6.0) and was part of a defensive unit that led the Sun Belt Conference in rebounding margin and was second in steals.
During his career with the Ragin’ Cajuns, Payton finished 16th in school history in scoring (1,425 points) while grabbing 508 rebounds with 486 assists (fifth on the all-time list) and a school-record 197 steals. His 644 career free throw attempts were fourth in school history, trailing Bo Lamar (802, 1969-73), Tim Thompson (722, 1957-61) and Andrew Toney (690, 1976-80) – one of two players in school history to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.
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