Published: April 21, 2006
East Rutherford, NJ
Barnes Arico, Clark, Wright and Hamilton
take home All-Met awards; Hamilton also cited for best performance
of the year at The Garden.
MBWA Awards Dinner Photo Gallery
St. John's women's coach Kim
Barnes Arico joined basketball student-athletes Angela
Clark, Kia
Wright and Lamont
Hamilton as award winners at the 73rd Metropolitan Basketball
Writers Association banquet. Barnes Arico was named the women's
MBWA Co-Coach of the Year, while Clark and Wright earned first team
All-Met honors. Hamilton was a second team All-Met selection on the
men's side, while also taking home the trophy for the 2005-06 MBWA
Madison Square Garden Outstanding Performance Award.
Barnes Arico, who shares this year's MBWA Coach of the Year
honor with Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer, guided the Red
Storm to its second-straight 20-win season and first NCAA
Tournament berth since 1988. St. John's bowed out to eventual
national champion Maryland in the second round, but finished the
season with a 22-8 record. This is the second MBWA Coach of the
Year honor for Barnes Arico, as she was the 2002 Division II Coach
of the Year at Adelphi prior to arriving at St. John's.
Clark was at or at the top of the BIG EAST's scoring and
rebounding charts all year, and was a first team All-BIG EAST
selection. The junior forward recorded her 1,000th career point
this year and averaged nearly 15 points per game.
Wright, also a first team All-BIG EAST selection, led the Red
Storm in scoring, assists, and steals. Particularly impressive at
the NCAA Tournament, the junior guard averaged 24.5 points per
game.
Hamilton averaged a team-best 12.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.1
blocks per game for the men's squad. Hamilton's 7.6 rebounds per
game average tied for seventh among all BIG EAST players, and
helped St. John's to finish the season ranked third in the
conference and eighth in the nation on the boards.
His 24-point, eight-rebound effort against Pitt earned the
2005-06 MBWA Madison Square Garden Outstanding Performance Award.
That night he tied a career-high in scoring against then-undefeated
No. 9/9 Pitt (Jan 21), netting four critical points in the final
:31.8 of the game to help lift the Red Storm to the win.
Also notable, Madison Square Garden Director of Public Relations
Larry Torres was the recipient of the 2006 MBWA Mike Cohen "Good
Guy" Award. Torres, who works closely with the St. John's men's and
women's teams for their games at The Garden, took some time to pose
with Hamilton for a post-event photo op.