Five Hilltoppers earn All-CUSA honors

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WKU SPORTS) – Five members of the WKU men’s basketball team garnered All-Conference USA postseason accolades, as announced by the league on Monday morning. Junior guard Don McHenry was named All-CUSA First Team, fifth-year forward Rodney Howard was named the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year, freshman guard Teagan Moore was named to the CUSA All-Freshman Team and Brandon Newman, Tyrone Marshall Jr. and Rodney Howard received All-CUSA Honorable Mention.

The Tops’ leading scorer for the 2023-24 season, McHenry helped lead the Hilltopper offense to a first-place rank for scoring in CUSA with 80.2 points per contest. The Milwaukee native finished regular-season play as the third-leading scorer in CUSA with 15.2 points per outing while charting the league’s third-best shooting percentage from the field (.464%) and second-best mark from the stripe (.860%).

McHenry also led the Tops in assists for the regular season and stands at 13th in CUSA with 75 total on the year. The junior led WKU in minutes for the season and earned two CUSA Player of the Week nods in 2023-24 – the first following a season-high 30 points in a win over Wright State on the road.

McHenry charted 20-point efforts in five-straight games from Feb. 1-15, including 20 points in a victory over then league-leader LA Tech and 24 points in a victory over Jax State to earn a second CUSA Player of the Week selection.

Howard earns Sixth Player of the Year merit after anchoring a top-25 bench scoring output (28.7) with 10 points per game. The fifth year came off the bench for all 16 league contests and averaged 10.6 points on 56.9 percent shooting from the field to go with 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per contest.

Howard recorded a season-high 18 points and 10-for-11 clip from the free-throw stripe in the Tops’ win over LA Tech on Feb. 7.

Moore was named to the conference’s All-Freshman Team after averaging 8.9 points per contest in CUSA play as well as a .539 shooting percentage from the field against conference opponents. The freshman native of the Commonwealth received two CUSA Freshman of the Week nods in 2023-24 after recording team-high point totals in three of the Tops’ five final regular-season outings.

Newman, Marshall and Howard receive All-CUSA honorable mention after helping anchor the Hilltoppers’ offensive and defensive production in 2023-24. Newman started in 30-of-30 games on the season for WKU, while Marshall started in 29-of-30 contests on the season.

Newman finished the regular season as the Tops’ second-leading scorer with 10.3 points per game. The redshirt senior guard from Valparaiso, Indiana finished second in rebounding on the team with 169 total on the season – good for 12th most in CUSA. Newman also notched the second-most steals on the team with 39 total, finished second on the team in minutes and charted third on the team in assists.

Marshall led the team in blocks (31) and steals (47) while finishing 6th in CUSA for both statistical categories. The senior native of Nashville logged the second-most defensive rebounds on the team with 113 on the year, and logged the third-most minutes on the Tops’ roster at 25.1 per contest.

WKU (19-11, 8-8 CUSA) opens CUSA Championship play as the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will face No. 6 seed New Mexico State on Thursday, March 14 at 8 p.m. CT. Tournament coverage will stream live from VBC Propst Arena in Hunstville, Ala. on ESPN+.