Barera and Rossi Garner NABC All-Region Men’s Basketball Honors
ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior center Phil Barera (Belmont/Belmont, Mass.) and sophomore guard Sean Rossi (Sparta/Sparta, N.J.) were named to the NABC All-East Region men’s basketball team, while also earning D3Hoops.com all-region accolades, earlier this week. Barera was named to the first team for the second straight year, while Rossi earned second-team recognition.
Ithaca (20-7), one of just four 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, who will play in Saturday’s NABC All-Star game, 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 eight sophomores represented in the field of 88 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.