ROSEMONT, Ill. – Nittany Lions Josh Reaves and Lamar Stevens earned Big Ten recognition Monday as announced by the conference office Monday. Lamar Stevens was named to the All-Big Ten Conference first team by the league's coaches and earned second-team honors from the media.
Reaves became the second Nittany Lion to earn a Big Ten Player of the Year award when he was named the league's 2019 Defensive Player of the Year by the Big Ten coaches. Calvin Booth earned the 1998 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award in 1998. A member of the All- Defensive team, Reaves also earned All-Big Ten honorable mention honors from the conference's voting media members.
A Fairfax, Virginia, native, Reaves led the Big Ten in steals for the third-straight year and his 247 career total is ranked fifth among all NCAA active players and eighth on the conference career chart. He recently moved into a tie for ninth place on Penn State's career blocked shots list with 91.
Stevens is one of only two players ranked in both the Big Ten Conference's top 10 for scoring and rebounding in league games where he averaged 20 points per contest, good for second, and 7.6 rebounds, tied for seventh. The North Wales, Pennsylvania, product has led Penn State in scoring 20 times in 2018-19 and rebounding 15 times, leading the Nittany Lions in at least two statistical categories in 12-straight games and 20 times this season.
With the second-longest starting streak in the nation and longest starting streak by a junior with 103 starts, Stevens is one of only two third-year Nittany Lions to reach 1,500 career points. Stevens moved to Penn State's all-time scoring top five with 18 points in the 2018-19 regular-season finale and has 1,636 to date.
The 2019 Big Ten Conference Sportsmanship Award for Penn State was presented to Nittany Lion senior forward Deivis Zemgulis. The consummate team player, Zemgulis has served in a variety of roles in his four years in Happy Valley. From Kaunas, Lithuania, he played in 75 games during his career and in a selfless action before the final regular-season home game, he met with Coach Patrick Chambers to relinquish his senior day starting spot. Zemgulis told Chambers "you can't start me" because the game was too important for the Nittany Lion program.
The Nittany Lions, the No. 10 seed in the 2019 Big Ten Tournament, face No. 7 seed Minnesota Thursday, March 14 at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT in the United Center in Chicago. Penn State earned a bye for the third time in program history in 2019, finishing the regular season with a 7-3 mark in the last 10 games of conference play.
Keep up to date with the latest information from Coach Patrick Chambers and the Nittany Lions on Twitter by following @Coach_Chambers and @PennStateMBB, liking the team's page on Facebook and following the team Instagram account at @PennStateMBB.
