Motzel, McCameron draw praise at Augustana

While helping the Augustana College men's basketball team to a 29-2 record this season, Brandon Motzel also excelled in the classroom.

Motzel (Grayslake/Carmel Catholic) was named to the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin academic all-conference team for winter sports. The engineering/pre-med major sports a 3.46 GPA.

On the court, the 6-foot-7 Motzel averaged 8.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in his senior season, while also leading the Vikings with 35 blocked shots. He started 18 of the 30 games he appeared in for Augustana, which saw its season end with an 86-76 loss to St. Thomas in the NCAA D III Final Four.

Motzel ended up fourth in school history in career field goal percentage (.582) and blocked shots (86), which have been compiled since the 1979-80 season.

Another local product, freshman Carly McCameron (Antioch/Antioch) of the Augustana women's basketball team, was also named to the academic all-conference team. The 6-1 McCameron, who's studying biology/pre-physical therapy, has a 3.5 GPA.

McCameron played in 23 games (no starts), averaging 10.9 minutes per game for the 10-15 Vikings. She averaged 2.7 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest and also had 20 blocked shots.

Augustana's other academic all-conference athletes included track athletes Kevin Barbian (Libertyville/Libertyville, 3.59 GPA, applied math/economics), Robert Williams (Vernon Hills/Vernon Hills, 3.85 GPA, general studies) and Laura McNair (Lake Zurich/Lake Zurich, 3.84 GPA, general studies).