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Sports

Lafayette adds more conference honors

Senior picks up second award in as many days

by RONNIE TURNER
The Daily Cougar

The awards keep piling up for UH senior shooting guard Oliver Lafayette.

Lafayette was named to the All-Conference USA Defensive Team on Tuesday, one day after being named to the All-C-USA Second Team. He is one of only two Cougars to receive conference accolades -- junior guard Robert "Fluff" McKiver was named an All-C-USA First Team selection on Monday.

Houston (16-14) will lean heavily on these two playmakers as it begins its run in the C-USA Tournament, which starts today in Memphis. The third-seeded Cougars will face the winner of the Southern Miss and Southern Methodist game at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

"I'm proud of both of those guys," senior forward Jahmar Thorpe said. "They've worked real hard all season, and really stepped up. Fluff and Oliver definitely (took on) more than half the share of the team this year."

Despite struggling on offense at times, Lafayette's defensive performance never waned. He was a tenacious on-the-ball defender who could change the flow of games by forcing turnovers or taking charges in the lane. 

At times, Lafayette could also change the flow of the game with his offense. Currently, he is the team's second-leading scorer behind McKiver, averaging 14.3 points per game, and leads all starters in free-throw efficiency at 77 percent.

However, Lafayette's most valuable asset to the team is his sterling defensive play. He leads the team in steals (2.5 per game) and is second in rebounds (6.0 per game). His steals average leads C-USA. Lafayette also led the league in steals in 2005-06 with an average of 3.4 per game.

Joining Lafayette on the All-C-USA Defensive Team were guard Antonio Anderson and forward Joey Dorsey of Memphis, guard Paul Delaney III of Alabama-Birmingham, and center Bamba Fall of Southern Methodist. Dorsey was also named C-USA's Defensive Player of the Year.

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