LOS ANGELES -- Cal State LA's men's basketball team, which will begin play in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament on Thursday, had five players make the 2023-24 All-CCAA Men's Basketball Team announced by the conference on Wednesday.

Shane Bell and Eche Okeke were both named to the first team, Corey Cofield and Dominic Escobar were named  to the second team and Deuce Walker earned honorable mention in voting by the conference coaches.

Bell and Okeke became the first Cal State LA players to earn first-team honors since Quinton Watkins in 2014 and the Golden Eagles hadn't placed two players on the first team since Jordan Richard and James Tillman in 2013.

The five All-Conference players is a new program single-season record for Cal State LA.

They were joined on the first team by Jeremy Dent-Smith and Jakob Alamudun of Cal State Dominguez Hills, Robby Robinson and Chris Mitchell of Cal State San Bernardino, Grady Lewis and Dimitrios Klonaras of Cal State East Bay, Joshua Hamilton of Chico State and Edwyn Collins of Cal State San Marcos.

Dent-Smith was named the CCAA Player of the Year, LeAndrew Knight of Cal State San Bernardino was named the Defensive Player of the Year, Alamudun was named the Newcomer of the Year, Rob Diaz of Cal Poly Humboldt was named the Freshman of the Year and Steve Becker of Cal State Dominguez Hills was named the Coach of the Year.

Bell earned first-team honors for the first time in his Cal State LA career, a year after earning second-team honors in 2022-23 as a sophomore. He is second on the team in scoring with 12.0 points per game and first in assists with 4.0 per game. He also leads the team in 3-pointers with 43, in field-goal percentage (.516) and 3-point field-goal percentage (.443).

Okeke was outstanding for the Golden Eagles after coming to Cal State LA from San Francisco State, where he earned second-team All-CCAA honors in 2022-23. He leads the Golden Eagles in scoring with 13.2 points per game and he's second in rebounding with 5.1 rebounds per game. He was the only player to start all 28 games for the Golden Eagles this season.

Cofield was one of the top newcomers in the conference and is having an outstanding season as well. He is third on the team in scoring with 11.8 points per game and leads the team in rebounding with 5.7 boards per game.

Escobar continues to improve in his third season with the program. He earned All-CCAA honorable mention last season and is enjoying his best season this year. He is fourth on the team with 11.2 points per game and is shooting a career-best 48.6 percent from the floor and 44.3 percent from 3-point range.

Walker also had an outstanding regular-season for the Golden Eagles in his second year with the program and earned All-CCAA recognition for the first time. He played in all 28 games and averaged 5.4 points per game. He was second on the team in assists and third in steals.

Cal State LA, as the No. 3 seed, will face No. 6 seed San Francisco State in a first-round CCAA Tournament game on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.



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