CONCORDIA ST PAUL BASKETBALL PLAYERS EARN POST SEASON HONORS

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has announced the 2008-09 All-NSIC First and Second Teams as well as the individual award winners. The two teams consist of 10 players each and are selected by the league coaches.

Concordia University earned two selections with junior forward Craig Heiman (Marshall, Wis.) repeating as an All-NSIC First Team selection while junior guard Mike Cunningham (Minneapolis, Minn.) was an All-NSIC Second Team selection. FULL NSIC RELEASE

Heiman becomes the second player in school history to earn All-NSIC First Team honors twice in a career, joining Brian Jamros, who repeated in 2003-04 and 2004-05. Heiman's nod is Concordia's fifth first team selection in their 10 years of Division II / NSIC membership. CU has had a first teamer in five of the last six years.

On the season, Heiman was second in the league in scoring virtually all year. Last year's overall scoring champion, Heiman put up 17.7 per game this season and finished strong with 20-plus scoring efforts in five of CU's last six games. He nearly topped 500 points again this year, scoring 496 for the fifth highest single season total in school history. His rebounding also improved over his numbers a year ago, posting three double-doubles while bringing down 171 rebounds. His 85.6% (77-90) free throw shooting set a new Concordia record, breaking Jay Dobbins' mark of 85.1% (69-81) set in 1994-95. For his career, Heiman not only surpassed the 1,000 point barrier fairly early in the season, he also shot up the career scoring list, closing out the season with 1,324 points which ranks fifth all-time. He trails the school career scoring record of 1,443 points held by Jeff Chamberlain (1993-97) by 119 points with a full season left to finish his already storied CU career.

Cunningham established himself as one of the more dynamic combo-guards in the league this season, ranking among the league's best in scoring (13th, 13.5 ppg), rebounding (17th, 5.3 rpg), assists (4th, 4.11 apg) and steals (3rd, 1.79 spg). Depending on the night, Cunningham had the attributes to bring what was necessary to the table to help CU pursue a victory. He finished the season strong, scoring in double figures in 15 of the last 16 games of which he scored 15+ eight times and 19+ five times. During that span, which covered over half the season and were all conference or NSIC Tournament games, Cunningham averaged 15.7 points and 6.1 rebounds while producing over four assists and nearly two steals per game. On the year, Cunningham reached the free throw line a team-high 142 times while increasing his free throw pct. as the season transpired.

In conference-only games, Heiman netted 16.8 points while Cunningham scored 14.5 per game.

Heiman has climbed the all-time NSIC scoring list, moving up to 12th place in league history with 875 points in 56 career NSIC games, a 15.6 career average. Over the last two years, he has scored 337 and 336 points in league play and with another 300+ season next year, he could jump as high as third all-time. Earlier this year, Heiman led the NABC Classic in scoring with 60 points in three games and was named to the NABC Classic All-Tournament Team, an impressive feat considering the other three teams in the field were NCAA Division I members: Minnesota (21-8), Bowling Green (17-11) and Georgia State (11-19).