SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Former Slippery Rock University men's basketball standout
Denell Stephens scored 15 points and grabbed 17 rebounds Sunday and earned game MVP honors in the decisive game to lead T 71 Dudelange past Sparta in the Luxembourg-Diekirch League finals.
Stephens, an honorable mention All-America performer in 2008-09, his only season at SRU, averaged 14.9 points and 9.7 rebounds and shot 62.2% from the field to help lead T 71 to a 21-7 record and a second-place finish in Luxembourg-Diekarch League regular-season competition.
He scored 20 or more points in six games and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 15 of the 32 games he played in his first season as a professional.
Stephens averaged 20 points and 9.6 assists per game to lead The Rock to a second-place finish in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division standings, a berth in the PSAC semifinals and a 21-8 final record in 2008-09 and its first winning season since 1999-2000. The conference semifinal berth was SRU's first since 2000 while the 20-win season was the Green and White's first since 1990-91.
Stephens earned honorable mention All-America status from the Dviision II Bulletin after being named as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division "Player of the Year" and earning first-team all-region honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
He was the first Rock men's basketball player to earn All-American honors since Myron Brown earned a first-team honor and was named as the Basketball Times' "Player of the Year" in 1990-91.
Stephens also earned second-team Daktronics Inc. all-region honors in voting by NCAA Division II Atlantic Region sports information directors.
A 6-foot-4, 215-pound Brooklyn. N.Y. resident and graduate of Elkton High School in Maryland, Stephens was SRU's leading scorer and rebounder in 2008-09 and ranked second in the PSAC in rebounding and fourth in scoring. He also led the conference in offensive rebounds at 3.8 per game, had the fourth-best field goal percentage in the league at 57.5% and ranked fifth in steals at 2.0 per game
