Bemidji State University men’s basketball senior forward James Ellisor (Glendale, Ariz.) was announced Daktronics Division II Men’s Basketball Ron Lenz National Player of the Year and Daktronics First Team All-America Tuesday, selected by members of College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor is the first of its kind in the 90 years of men’s basketball at BSU, while his All-America award makes him the third Beaver student-athlete to earn All-America status in program history.
The last student-athlete at BSU to earn All-America recognition was Charles Hanks in 2003-04 and before that is was Arne Johnson in 1940-1941. Ellisor is the first Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men’s basketball player to earn the national player of the year award from any publication since Winona State University’s John Smith in 2007-08. The Glendale, Ariz. native is the third player from the NSIC to be earn the title player of the year, as Smith was named to the honor in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and Brett Beeson of Minnesota State University Moorhead was the 1995-96 DII Player of the Year.
In 2011-12, Ellisor has earned Daktronics Central Region Player of the Year, Daktronics First Team All-Central Region, NABC Coaches’ Division II All-Central District First Team, NSIC Player of the Year, First Team All-NSIC and was a four-time NSIC Player of the Week. He led the league in scoring with 22.9 points per conference contest. His 504 total points in league play established a new conference record for points in a season, while his 182 field goals made also placed his name atop the NSIC single-season list. He scored 30 points on five occasions, including the final three games of the regular season to guide the Beavers to their first NSIC Regular-Season Championship since 2003-04. He posted a career-high 34 points on three different occasions to tie for the league’s top single-game performance in the 22-game NSIC schedule. The senior led the NSIC in 3-point percentage with a 57.8 percent clip and ranked in the top 10 in minutes per game (2nd, 33.86 mpg), field goal percentage (4th, 59.3%), free throw percentage (6th, 87.7%) and rebounds per game (9th, 6.0 rpg).
He posted 18 20-plus point games, en route to 680 total points to set the BSU mark for points in a single season by 31 points. Ellisor knocked down 251 shots from the field and 144 free throws to establish the school’s single season mark in both categories. He also brought down 202 rebounds (6.5 rpg) to rank ninth on BSU’s single season chart. He completed his senior season averaging 21.9 points per game to currently rank No. 3 nationally. His 57.8 percent mark from the field is 25th in the nation and his 82.2 free throw percentage is 36th.
In two seasons at Bemidji State, Ellisor amassed 1,129 career points to rank 13th on BSU’s career points list and become the 15th player at BSU to reach the 1,000 point plateau. He closes his career as a Beaver with a 57.9 field goal percentage and shot 83.4 percent from the charity stripe.
The Bemidji State men’s basketball team made its second appearance in the NCAA tournament in program history March 10 as it closed the 2011-12 season as the third seed at the NCAA Central Region Men’s Basketball Tournament with a 77-72 loss to sixth seed and NSIC-foe St. Cloud State in Golden, Colo. on the campus of Colorado School of Mines. The Beavers finished the season with a program-record number of wins and an overall mark of 22-9. Bemidji State’s 16-6 conference record was also a team record for wins and earned it the NSIC championship.
BSU will lose three seniors to graduation, including Ellisor and Daktronics All-Central Region Second Team Bryce Tesdahl. The Beavers will have four seniors and three juniors returning for the 2012-13 campaign. Head coach Matt Bowen (NSIC Coach of the Year) completed his sixth season at Bemidji State in 2011-12 and owns a career mark of 64-102 (.386).
The 2012 All-America team is sponsored by Daktronics, Inc., an acknowledged world leader in scoring, timing and programmable display systems for virtually every sport at every level of competition. The online nomination and voting processes are powered by ATHLETICSITE.COM. Headquartered in Charleston, S.C., ATHLETICSITE.COM is the official provider for college athletic websites for over 30 sports organizations, including 26 colleges, universities and conferences primarily at the NCAA Division II level.