Barera and Rossi Collect D3Hoops.com All-Region Accolades
ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior center Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Mass.) and sophomore guard Sean Rossi(Sparta/Sparta, N.J.) were named to the D3Hoops.com All-East Region men’s basketball team announced Tuesday. Barera was named to the first team for the second straight year, while Rossi earned second-team recognition.
Ithaca (20-7), one of ten teams with more than one honoree, tallied its third consecutive 20-win season as it won the Empire 8 regular-season crown and earned a place in the NCAA Tournament.
Barera led the Bombers with 16.6 points per game and ranked second on the squad with 8.5 rebounds per game. He added 10 double-doubles on a team best 65.3 percent field-goal accuracy that ranked him third in the nation. The Empire 8 Player of the Year and a first-team selection, Barera pulled down 578 rebounds during his tenure to sit 12th all-time in Ithaca’s record books. Barera also earned District One All-Academic accolades this season.
Rossi, one of 14 sophomores represented in the field of 116 all-region players, led the nation in assists dishing out 9.7 per contest this season. He finished the season with 263 assists, rewriting his own single-season assist record, while also ranking third all-time at Ithaca with 474. An Empire 8 First-Team selection, Rossi was one of five averaging double figures for the Bombers. He tallied 11.9 points per contest in a team-leading 35.8 minutes per game. He also ranked sixth in the nation with an assist to turnover ratio of 3.42.
Regions that have fewer than 40 Division III teams have two all-region teams. The Northeast has four teams, while all other regions have three. There were 680 players nominated nationwide, a new high.