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2023 All-OVC Basketball Team

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Eastern Illinois men's basketball wrapped up the regular season last week and on Tuesday (Feb. 28) two players were honored by the Ohio Valley Conference as the league announced its end of season awards.
 
Cameron Haffner was named the OVC Freshman of the Year while Kinyon Hodges was selected to the All-OVC Newcomer team.
 
Haffner averaged 7.5 points per game for the season increasing that average to 9.2 points per game in OVC play.  He was named the OVC Freshman of the Week five times during the regular season including one stretch of four straight OVC Freshman of the Week awards.  He led EIU with 44 3-pointers made ranking third in the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage at 42.7 percent.  He scored in double figures in ten games with a season-high 17 points in three different games, the most recent at Little Rock.  Haffner becomes the fifth EIU player to win OVC Freshman of the Year honors joining George Tandy (2005), Mike Robinson (2006), Romain Martin (2007) and Cornell Johnston (2015). 
 
Hodges led the Panthers in scoring during the season averaging 14.4 points per game.  He was named to the All-OVC Newcomer Team becoming the 13th EIU player to earn All-Newcomer team honors.  Hodges scored in double figures in 22 of 26 games played this season with a high of 25 points at UT Martin.  He finished the season with six straight double figure games including a 21-point effort against Tennessee Tech.  Hodges ranked 11th in the OVC in scoring this season while landing in the conference top ten for field goal percentage (7th), steals (10th) and minutes played (4th). 
 
OVC regular season champion Morehead State swept the other three yearly OVC awards with Preston Spradlin named the OVC Coach of the Year, Mark Freeman named the OVC Player of the Year and Alex Gross named the OVC Defensive Player of the Year.
 
The OVC Tournament begins on Wednesday in Evansville, Indiana.