October 12, 2005
FIVE FORMER SAINTS PLAYING PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL
Five former
Seward
County
Community College
men’s basketball players are currently playing in the professional basketball ranks. Former Saints basketball players, Melvin Sanders, Jamal Brown, Brandon Gay, Devonne Giles and Kevin Houston are all currently playing at the professional basketball level.
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MELVIN SANDERS
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Melvin Sanders, a 1999 graduate from
Liberal
High School
, is currently on the pre-season roster for the 2005 National Basketball Association (NBA) Champion San Antonio Spurs. Last year, Sanders spent the pre-season with the Denver Nuggets and played in all of their pre-season games before not making their final regular season roster.
Sanders spent one season playing at SCCC before transferring to Big 12 powerhouse
Oklahoma
State
University
. Sanders finished a stellar three year career at OSU before making it to the professional ranks. Sanders played all of last season (2004-2005) for the Dakota Wizards in the Continental Basketball League (CBL), where he was named Second Team All-CBL and CBL All-Defensive Team. Sanders led the Wizards to a Western Conference Championship averaging 18.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. In addition, Sanders made history last year scoring a CBL record 54 points in a single game, against the Rockford Lighting, in
Rockford
,
Ill.
, on
March 13, 2005
. Sanders was a First Team All-Conference performer for the Saints in 2000.
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JAMAL BROWN
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After leading the NJCAA in rebounds as a sophomore, Jamal Brown had two strong seasons at the NCAA D-I level at Texas Christian University (TCU). Brown averaged nine points and eight rebounds in two seasons at TCU. After his collegiate career ended, Brown packed up his bags and headed overseas to
Australia
. This past season in
Australia
, Brown helped lead his team to a league title while averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds per game. This past season was Brown’s second year in a row averaging over 20 points per game in only his second professional season.
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KEVIN HOUSTON
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Former Saints All-American, Kevin Houston, is currently playing professionally in
France
.
Houston
played two seasons for SCCC head coach, Dave Brown, in 1996-1998.
Houston
was the leading scorer (23.5 ppg.) in 1998 for Brown’s team that finished 35-3 and in third place in the NJCAA National Tournament.
Houston
is still currently the all-time Saints leader in Season Scoring (893), Career Free Throws (411), Season Free Throws (232) and second all-time in Career Scoring (1,485).
Brandon Gay and Devonne Giles were both on the Seward County 2003 team that finished 26-6 overall. In 2003, Giles was an All-American and Gay was the Jayhawk West Conference Most Valuable Player.
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BRANDON GAY
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DEVONNE GILES
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Gay finished his college career last spring at
San Diego
University
where he averaged 17.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Gay is currently playing professional basketball in
Germany
. Giles finished his collegiate career playing for Head Coach, Bobby Knight, at
Texas
Tech
University
.
Giles was the top rebounder (6.5 rpg.) and fourth leading scorer (11.3 ppg.) for the Red Raiders in their Sweet Sixteen finish last year. Giles is currently playing in
Argentina
for a professional team that started their season this month.
