Moon Township, Pa. – A pair of RMU men's basketball student-athletes were honored with Horizon League postseason honors Monday in a vote of league head coaches, as fifth-year forward
Kahliel Spear was named to the 2023 All-Horizon League Second Team, while junior guard
Enoch Cheeks was tabbed to the 2023 All-Horizon League Third Team. In addition to earning #HLMBB second team honors, Spear earned a spot on the 2023 All-Horizon League Defensive Team.
Entering the 2023 Barbasol Horizon League Tournament, Spear, a native of The Colony, Texas, has produced averages 15.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He is one of two Colonials to start all 31 games this season for RMU and ranks 10th in the league in scoring and fifth in rebounding while sitting seventh in field goal percentage at 51.1 percent (186-for-364).
Spear has posted 12 double-doubles during his final season as well as 21 throughout his three-year career with the Colonials, which ranks second in program history. He has also reached double figures in 15 consecutive games entering RMU's
#HLMBB Tournament First Round tilt with IUPUI Tuesday at the UPMC Events Center. During that span Spear has averaged 18.1 points and 9.0 rebounds while knocking down 53.7 percent (101-for-188) of his shots from the floor.
Earlier this season, Spear established a new RMU career record for blocks, a key reason he earned a spot on the 2023 All-Horizon League Defensive Team. He owns 99 career rejections in 81 games with the Colonials, an average of 1.22 per contest, including a team-high 41 this year. That total ranks second in the RMU single-season record book.
The 15th player in program history to eclipse career totals of 1,000 points and 500 rebounds, Spear owns 1,134 points and 594 boards in three seasons with the Colonials. Those totals rank 19th and 10th, respectively, all-time in school history. Spear is the program's active leader for consecutive games (81) and starts (68) and is a career 53.3 percent (444-for-833) shooter from the field at RMU.
Cheeks, a native of Providence, R.I., has stuffed the stat sheet in a breakout 2022-23 season in which he leads the Colonials in scoring with an average of 16.0 points per game entering Tuesday's game against the Jaguars. He also leads RMU in steals (55) and ranks second in assists (99) and blocks (36).
Reaching double figures in scoring in each of his first 17 games of the 2022-23 season, Cheeks ranks ninth in #HLMBB in scoring, 12th in field goal percentage at 46.1 percent (170-for-369) and assists (3.41 per game), third in blocks (1.24 pg) and fourth in steals (1.90 pg). In three seasons with the Colonials, Cheeks has appeared in 76 games, including 65 starts, and owns career totals of 832 points, 348 rebounds, 68 blocks and 107 thefts.
Led by 13th-year RMU Pat Gallagher Head Coach
Andrew Toole, the Colonials concluded the 2022-23 regular season with an overall record of 15-16 (.484), including 10-10 (.500) in the Horizon League. RMU split its season series with IUPUI, and Tuesday marks the fourth time under Toole the Colonials have squared off with an opponent in a tournament opener that it also faced in their finale of the regular season.
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