SHAWNEE, Okla. – On the eve of the 11^th playing of the Great American Conference Tournament, the league announced its superlative award winners and all-conference teams on Wednesday night in Shawnee, Oklahoma and among the student-athletes honored are Southern Arkansas Mulerider Men's Basketball's Devante Brooks and Aaron Lucas. Brooks notched his second straight unanimous first team selection, while Lucas landed on the league's second team.
 
For Brooks, the league honor is the fourth for the Shreveport, Louisiana native in his prolific career. The forward was named an All-GAC First Team honoree in 2018-19 following his sophomore season. As a junior in 2019-20, Brooks earned second team plaudits before claiming the first of two unanimous All-GAC First Team selections last spring.
 
Lucas, the GAC's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year a season ago, adds a second team accolade to a unanimous first team honor following the 2020-21 regular season.
 
The duo has helped the Muleriders to 17 regular season wins, tied for the second-most under current head coach Andy Sharpe who is in his tenth season, and become one of the top rebounding and perimeter-defending teams in the country.
 
SAU ranks fifth nationally in offensive rebounds per game (14.29), 15^th in total rebounds (1,120), holds the 19^th-best rebounding margin in the country (6.4), and ranks 22^nd nationally in rebounding average (40.0). The Muleriders three-point field goal defense is 24^th in Division II at 30.6% and its scoring defense of 67.2 ppg ranks in the top 40 nationally.
 
Devante Brooks
Senior Forward | Shreveport, Louisiana
 
The most dominant big man in program history, Brooks' final regular season in Magnolia was highly productive. To say the least. Brooks' 28-game double-double average of 17.6 points (3^rd highest in GAC) and 11.2 rebounds per game (leads GAC) helped the Pelican State product produce the second-most double doubles in the country with 18 which gives him a GAC record 47 for his career.
 
He became the first player in program history to average 10+ rebounds in a single season which came as a result of one of the top rebounding efforts in the country this season. Brooks' 314 rebounds and 11.2 rebounds per game both rank fifth nationally, while his 3.61 offensive rebounds per game rank 14^th in Division II and his 7.61 defensive rebounds are the 15^th-best average nationally.
 
No Mulerider has played in more games than Devante's 136 and the 28 that he stared in this campaign came in a team-best 31.8 minutes on the floor. He knocked down 193 field goals, the third-most in the GAC, and his 53.6% success rate ranks fifth in the league at the close of the regular season. He has recorded 33 assists, 25 blocks and 22 steals.
 
In all but one contest this season Brooks scored in double figures registering 17 or more points in 19 games and eclipsing the 20-point mark on ten occasions, while tying his career-high in scoring with 26 points in a home win over Southern Nazarene on February 17. Brooks recorded double figures in rebounds 18 times this season and grabbed 15 or more boards in six games, including three games with 19.
 
Among the plethora of single game, single season and career records to Brooks' name, the uber-athletic forward is the program's and GAC's all-time leading rebounder with 1,200, the program's career leader in offensive rebounds (459) and defensive rebounds (741), is the program's all-time leading scorer in the NCAA Era and third all-time with 1,722 points, and the program's NCAA leader in blocked shots (121). He is currently just seven points away from becoming the first player in the program's NCAA Era to score 500 points in a single season.
 
Aaron Lucas
Senior Point Guard | Tulsa, Oklahoma
 
Lucas' final regular season run as a Mulerider was just as meaningful as his first four. The Sooner State product started all 28 regular season games at 31.5 minutes per game, averaged the GAC's seventh-highest per game scoring clip at 14.2 ppg and ranked in the top six league wide in eight other statistical categories. The Tulsa product ranked among the league's best in three-point field goal attempts (2^nd, 183), free throw percentage (4^th, 80.6%), steals per game (5^th, 1.68), total three-pointers made (5^th, 65), three-point field goals per game (6^th, 2.32), total steals (5^th, 47), total assists (5^th, 94), assists per game (6^th, 3.4), and total field goal attempts (6^th, 321).  
 
Lucas tallied 94 assists, 79 rebounds and 47 steals. His 80.6% (79-for-98) free throw clip led all Muleriders with at least twenty attempts from the stripe, while his 35.5% success rate from three-point range was the second-best on the team among players with 50 makes.
 
Of his 28 games, Lucas scored in double figures 21 times with five games at 20 or more points. He delivered a season-high 25 points in a 16-point home win over East Central on February 12. The point guard did his fair share of dishing as well as he handed out four or more assists in a game 13 times this season, including six games with six or more. He recorded three or more steals in a game seven times.
 
Lucas is currently four points away from moving into fourth place on the all-time scoring list as he has 1,606 points entering postseason play. He is the program's career leader in three-pointers made with 205 and is the program's NCAA Era leader in assists with 452. His 214 career steals are a program best and he is second behind only D. Brooks in games played (134) and total minutes (3696:42).