April 11, 2005

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.-Marist's Will Whittington capped a stellar 2004-05 campaign by becoming just the fourth player in NCAA men's basketball history to finish a season ranked in the top six nationally in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers per game, the school announced Monday morning.

The Kingwood, Texas native connected on 49.2 percent of his long-range attempts (97-for-197), good enough for second nationally. He also made 3.5 3-pointers per contest to finish sixth in the country. The only other three players to accomplish this feat are Terrence Woods of Florida A&M (third in 3-point percentage, first in 3-pointers per game) and Kyle Korver of Creighton in 2003 (second in 3-point percentage, fifth in 3-pointers per game), while Cain Doliboa of Wright State was second in 3-point percentage and first in 3-pointers per game in 2002.

The shooting guard, a MAAC Co-Player of the Week honoree on December 14, also finished second in the nation in scoring improvement from last season to this season when he jumped from 4.04 points per game to 16.07 points per contest, according to Stats, Inc. That mark was just behind Stanford's Dan Grunfeld, who improved by 14.52 points this season (3.39 to 17.91).

Whittington, a third team All-MAAC honoree, led Marist in scoring (16.1), set a school record for 3-pointers in a season (97) and is the Red Foxes' all-time leader in 3-point percentage (122-for-264, 46.2 percent). His 122 long-range connections are also the seventh highest total in Marist history.

Marist went 11-17 under first-year head coach Matt Brady this season.