(Sioux City, Iowa) – Mason Walters of the University of Jamestown has been selected as the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Men’s Basketball Player-of-the-Year for the second consecutive year and headlines the GPAC Basketball All-Conference Teams for 2021-22. Walters, a junior, averaged 24.5 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for the Jimmies who are currently 24-8 overall and 12-8 in conference play.
Other GPAC basketball honorees for 2021-22 include: Defensive Player-of-the-Year Mason Larson of Dakota Wesleyan; Freshman-of-the-Year Luke Rankin of Dordt University; and the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Coach-of-the-Year Mark Svagera of Briar Cliff University. The GPAC Basketball honors are selected by the league’s 11 head coaches.
1st Team
Bryce Coppock – Dordt
Trent Hilbrands – Northwestern
Jaden Kleinhesselink – Briar Cliff
Alex Van Kalsbeek – Northwestern
Kleinhesselink, a senior from Sheldon, Iowa, is tied for the team lead, averaging 12.5 points per game on 48.7% shooting and 43.3% from deep. Kleinhesselink grabs 3.9 rebounds and dishes out 2.1 assists per game. He scored over 20 points in five games and knocked down three or more 3-pointers in eight contests. He scored a season high 24 points in a win over Dakota Wesleyan when he went 11-for-20 from the field with five boards and three assists. Kleinhesselink has been named to the all-GPAC list for the fourth straight season, as he was honorable mention twice and second-team once.
Van Kalsbeek (So., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) scored 697 points this season, which sits ninth in program history for points scored in a season and was the most scored by any GPAC player this season. The sophomore also got the job done on the boards, sitting fourth in the conference in rebounds per game (8.1). He shot 64.8% from the field which sat third in the conference, followed by his 3.6 assists per game (t6th in GPAC).
This season saw the sophomore become the 49th Raider in men’s basketball program history to notch 1,000 career points, doing it in just 48 games as a Red Raider. This marks the second straight season Van Kalsbeek has been named a First Team All-Conference performer, following his GPAC Freshman of the Year honor a season ago.
Hilbrands (Sr., Remsen, Iowa/Le Mars Community) joins Van Kalsbeek in being one of the top-5 scorers in the GPAC this season, averaging 18.3 points per game which sat fourth in the conference. He led the team with 105 made 3-pointers on the season. His 3-point prowess had him near the top nationally in 3-point shooting, including 3PT/G of 3.4-8.4 (2nd) and shot 40.5% from deep. His 105 3-pointers, marked over 60% of his 566 points this season.
The senior was third on the team in steals (13) and had 54 assists to his credit all while averaging 37 minutes a game. His 2,120 career points sits 6th all-time in Raider men’s basketball history. Hilbrands is picking up his fourth First Team All-Conference accolade in a Raider uniform this season. The last Raider to accomplish that feat was current assistant coach Colton Kooima.
Bryce Coppock (Sophomore; Hawarden, Iowa) was named to the first-team and Cade Bleeker (Junior; Sioux Center, Iowa) was named to the second-team. Luke Rankin (Freshman; Grimes, Iowa) was named the GPAC Freshman-of-the-Year and honorable mention. Jacob Vis (Junior; Rock Valley, Iowa) and Jackson Louscher (Sophomore; Paullina, Iowa) both claimed honorable mention accolades.
Coppock led the Defenders in scoring 19.1 points per game and averaged 20.9 points per game in GPAC games. He also averaged 4.1 rebounds and converted 46 percent of his field goal tries. Coppock is the first Dordt sophomore to score more than 500 points in a season since 1985-86. He has made 62 of his three-point shots.
2nd Team
Cade Bleeker – Dordt
Kyle Boerhave – Briar Cliff
Boerhave, a senior from Sheldon, Iowa, matches Kleinhesselink’s 12.5 points per game on 59.7% shooting and secures 5.3 rebounds per game. He scored over 20 points in five games this season and recorded one double-double. He had a season high 24 points in a win over Bellevue on 9-for-11 shooting with three rebounds. This is Boerhave’s second all-GPAC accolade as he was named an honorable mention his freshman season.
Bleeker scores 12.9 points per game and gets 4.6 rebounds per outing and has converted a team high 65 three-point baskets at a 42 percent rate. Bleeker was a second-team choice in 2020 and an honorable mention pick last season.
Honorable Mention
Dordt: Luke Rankin, Jacob Vis, Jackson Louscher
Northwestern: Matt Onken, Grant DeMeulenaere
Onken (R-So., Marshall, Minn./Marshall) started all 30 games he played in this seaon for the Raiders, averaging 26.9 minutes a game. In a break out season for the redshirt sophomore, he averaged a team’s third-best 11.4 points per game and grabbed 6.4 rebounds a game.
He had a break out game, nearly doubling his previous career-high with 41 points in the 98-70 victory over Mount Marty on Saturday, February 12 inside the Bultman Center. Onken is collecting his first-career All-Conference honor in a Raider uniform.
DeMeulenaere (Sr., Altoona, Iowa/Grand View Christian) will end his career as a Raider earning Honorable Mention All-GPAC honors. He started each of the 30 games he played in, averaging 32.6 minutes on the floor per contest.
He averaged 8.2 points per game, scoring 247 points on the season. He led the team with 116 assists on the year, while holding a team’s second-best 19 steals. He also averaged 5.0 rebounds per contest, but was also a threat from deep – shooting a team-best 43.8% (56-of-128).
The two Raiders named to the First Team marks the sixth straight year under head coach Kris Korver that at least two Raiders have been named to either the First or Second All-Conference teams in the same season.
Rankin averaged a team best 4.6 assists per game while scoring 10.5 points per game. Vis averaged 15.3 points per game with 8.0 rebounds per contest and has recently returned to play after missing eight games with injury. Vis was an honorable mention pick in 2021. Louscher scored 8.4 points per game and made 59 percent of his field goals.
