March 11, 2008

Cleveland, Ohio - The Mid-American Conference announced on Tuesday (Mar. 11) that Northern Illinois guard Darion Anderson (Chicago, Ill./Carver Military Academy) is the 2008 MAC Freshman of the Year.

Anderson is the first Northern Illinois student-athlete to win this award since Kenny Battle earned the honor in 1985.

"It is a tremendous honor for Darion Anderson to be named the MAC Freshman of the Year with such a competitive field of other freshmen," NIU head men's basketball coach Ricardo Patton said.  "There is no question that Darion is a great starting block to rebuilding the NIU men's basketball program."

Anderson averages a team-best 11.9 points and 2.8 assists per game, and is second overall on the team with 5.1 rebounds-per-game. He has appeared in all 27 games and is the first Huskie freshman to lead the squad in scoring since T.J. Lux (15.2 ppg.) in 1995-96.

The Chicago, Illinois native is the top scoring freshman in the MAC and is currently fourth in NIU history for most points scored by a freshman with 320 tallies.  

NIU opens the 2008 MAC Tournament on Wednesday, as the No. 11 seeded Huskies square off with No. 6 Central Michigan for a 2 p.m. (CST) tip-off at the Quicken Loans Arena.

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