Davidson’s Jon Axel Gudmundsson named A-10 player of year

The Atlantic 10’s player-of-the-year award will stay at Davidson.

Jon Axel Gudmundsson, the Wildcats’ do-everything guard, was named the league’s top player Tuesday.

It’s the third time in Davidson’s five seasons in the A-10 that a Wildcats player has won the award: forward Peyton Aldridge was co-player of the year last season, and guard Tyler Kalinoski took the honor in 2014-15, Davidson’s first season in the league.

Gudmundsson, a 6-foot-5 junior from Iceland, is joined on the all-conference first team by teammate and sophomore guard Kellan Grady. Joining the Davidson pair on the first team are Dayton freshman Obi Toppin, St. Bonaventure’s Courtney Stockard and Virginia Commonwealth’s Marcus Evans.

Gudmundsson routinely fills up a box score, and is the only player to rank in the top 5 in the A-10 in scoring (third, 17.2), rebounding (fifth, 7.3) and assists (fifth, 4.7). He leads the league in defensive rebounding (6.6) and is tied for third in assist-turnover ratio (2.0), sixth in free-throw percentage (82.4), tied for 15th in steals (1.3), 12th in 3-point percentage (35.7) and sixth in minutes played (36.6).

Gudmundsson also has eight double-doubles this season and a triple-double of 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against Rhode Island on Feb. 22.

Grady, the A-10’s freshman of the year last season, is averaging 15.9 points, fourth in the league, along with 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

Davidson (23-8, 14-4) is the second seed in this week’s conference tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Wildcats will play the winner of No. 7 Duquesne and No. 10 Saint Joseph’s on Friday in the quarterfinals.

▪ Davidson’s Sarah Donovan was named to the all-conference women’s team and also as the league’s most improved player. The Wildcats’ Justin Lyon and Katie Turner were named to the third team, while Lyon was also named sixth woman of the year in the league.

Conference USA

Charlotte 49ers senior point guard Jon Davis was named to the all-Conference USA men’s second team, while 49ers’ senior point guard Laia Raventos also made the women’s second team. Raventos also made the all-defensive second team, and 49ers center Jazmin Harris made the league’s all-freshman team.

Seventh-seed Charlotte (17-11, 9-7 C-USA) opens play in the women’s league tournament Wednesday against No. 10 Louisiana Tech (14-15, 6-10) in Frisco, Tex.

This story was originally published March 12, 2019 at 2:19 PM.