Kelly Named NJCAA D-II Second Team All-American
Toledo, OH---James Kelly has been named a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) D-II Second Team All-American.
Toledo, OH---James Kelly has been named a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) D-II Second Team All-American.
He becomes the first Express men's basketball player to achieve All-American honors in 13 years. Joe Sheperd was the most recent, as he was selected as a Third Team All-American in 1999-2000.
Statistically, Kelly is perhaps the best all-around men's basketball player Owens has seen since the program began in 1966.
In his two years, Kelly became the first Express men's basketball player to ever record at least 1,000 career points, 600 career rebounds, 100 career blocks and 100 career steals. He finished with two-year totals of 1,219 points, 678 rebounds, 105 blocks and 104 steals. For good measure, he added 70 assists.
This past year, Kelly broke the program's single season rebounding record with 363, became the program's all-time leading career rebounder with 678 and he broke the program's career blocks record with 105. As a freshman, he broke the single season blocks record with 57.
As a sophomore, Kelly led the Express to the NJCAA D-II National Tournament semifinals, where the Express finished fourth. It was their first national tournament appearance since 2002-03, their best finish since 2000-01 and Kelly was the piece that made everything go.
It was no easy feat as Justin Edmonds, the team's co-leading scorer along with Kelly, went down with a season ending injury midway through the year. Kelly was the team's clear cut leader and led the team to that first district title since 2002-03.
In his sophomore year, Kelly averaged 18.3 points, 10.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. In OCCAC play alone, Kelly was the league's leading scorer (21.1/game) and rebounder (11.4/game), and he finished fourth in steals (2.3/game) and third in blocks (1.6/game).
In 20 of the team's 36 games overall, Kelly posted a double-double. Against Cuyahoga Community College on Jan. 16, 2013, in a matchup against another one of the league's best players Joshua Reagan, Kelly posted a triple-double with 30 points, 12 rebounds and 10 steals.
In OCCAC play, Kelly posted a double-double in 10 of the 12 games, including eight in a row at one point. In district tournament play, he posted double-doubles in both games, including the championship game win over No. 10 Lakeland Community College.
For the year, Kelly was a three-time OCCAC Player of the Week. He also captured it once as a freshman. Additionally, Kelly was named NJCAA D-II Player of the Week on Jan. 23, 2013 after posting a triple-double against Cuyahoga and a double-double against Cincinnati State.
On the evening of March 6, 2013, Kelly had a dunk featured on ESPN Sportscenter's Top 10 plays of the day.
As a freshman, Kelly posted 18 double-doubles, and thus he finished his career with 38 double-doubles in 68 games.
In terms of awards, Kelly was named First Team All-OCCAC and All-Region XII as a sophomore. As a freshman, he earned Second Team All-OCCAC honors.
Kelly will play next year at the University of Miami (Fla.).
Notes
Of the five Express sports that have competed this year, Kelly's All-American selection marks the fourth of the five to receive an All-American student-athlete. In volleyball, Dakia Sellers was a First Team All-American, Kendra Eitniear was an Honorable Mention All-American in women's soccer and Glenroy Miller was a Second Team All-American in men's soccer.