April 15, 2008

WORCESTER, Mass. - Former Holy Cross basketball standout Torey Thomas (White Plains, N.Y.) has been named the 2008 Player of the Year in the Swedish Basketligan, the top professional basketball league in Sweden. Thomas spent the season playing for Akropol BBK, which plays its games in Stockholm, Sweden.

During the 2008 campaign, Thomas averaged 25.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 3.1 steals per game for Akropol. He also shot 51.2 percent from the field, 43.8 percent from three-point range and 81.4 percent at the free throw line. Thomas finished the year as the league leader in scoring, assists and steals, as Akropol posted an overall record of 9-24.

With Akropol's season complete, Thomas has now signed a contract to play for the next two months with Etendard de Brest, a team located in Brest, France, which plays in the Pro B division of the Ligue Nationale de Basketball.

A 2007 Holy Cross graduate, Thomas earned Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior and was also named first team all-conference. He ranked second on the team and seventh in the league in scoring with an average of 13.7 points per game in 2006-2007, in addition to leading the conference with an average of 2.8 steals per game. He also ranked first on the team in assists (4.8 assists per game) and third in rebounding (4.7 rebounds per game), marks which placed him second and 11th in the conference, respectively. Thomas finished his career ranked second all-time at Holy Cross in steals (268) and games played (125), fifth in assists (468) and 10th in three-point field goals made (108), while scoring 1,201 career points.