NEWS : Guemeta named Defensive Player of the Year, Stajic and Choudary join him as All-Stars

The Gee-Gees were the top team in OUA men's basketball this season and had four members recognized by the conference on Thursday as the OUA All-Stars and Major Award winners were announced.

Jaques-Mélaine Guemeta led the way, garnering the Defensive Player of the Year Award as well as a place on the Third All-Star Team. Dragan Stajic was named a First Team All-Star, and Ankit Choudhary was named to the Second Team of All-Stars. Owen Kenney was named to the OUA All-Rookie Team.

It was a stellar all-around season for Guemeta as he recorded career highs in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals. He led Ottawa in rebounding with an average of 6.2 per game and was ninth in OUA with 1.7 steals per game.

Guemeta's ability to lock in and play full court defence was on display all season long, while he also led the Gee-Gees in scoring with 15.8 points per game. Guemeta's quickness and tactical discipline on defence led him to record four personal fouls only three times during the regular season, with an average of 28.9 minutes played per game.

As a team, Ottawa allowed the fewest points per game in U SPORTS with an average of 65.9 points against. The Gee-Gees also held opponents to a nation-best 34.9 field goal shooting percentage, and were fourth in OUA in opponent's turnovers caused.

This was Guemeta's third season in Garnet and Grey and his first conference All-Star recognition, although he was named to the OUA All-Rookie Team and earned the uOttawa Rookie of the Year across all varsity teams in 2022-23. He is a Civil Engineering student from Douala, Cameroon.

Fifth-year point guard Dragan Stajic earns his third consecutive All-Star award after being selected as a Third Team All-Star in each of the last two seasons. His final season in Garnet and Grey was masterful as he established career highs in points, three-point shooting percentage, field goal percentage, and steals per game.

Stajic led U SPORTS in three-point shooting percentage, draining 50.9 per cent from beyond the arc (28/55). He was third in OUA (and fourth in U SPORTS) in steals per game with 2.8 and tied for third in the conference in assists with 5.3 per game (tied fifth nationally). The Marketing student from Waterloo, Ont., rounded out his impressive stats sheet with 6.0 rebounds and 10.8 points per game.

Ankit Choudhary led U SPORTS in three-pointers made, sinking 66 of his 168 attempts (39.3 per cent) en route to a scoring average of 15.5 points per game which ranked second on the Gee-Gees. Choudhary also led OUA in free throw shooting percentage, executing at a 89.7 per cent rate on his 58 attempts from the line.  This is the first OUA All-Star nod for Choudhary, a Communications student from Toronto, in his third season of conference play.

Owen Kenney was a solid sixth man for Ottawa, contributing an efficient 8.4 points and 4.8 rebounds in his 20.0 minutes per game. A three-point threat himself, he also affected opponents shots, ranking ninth in OUA with 21 total blocks in his 22 games played. Kenney, a Psychology student from Barrie, Ont., made five regular season starts for Ottawa.

Guemeta is the fourth Gee-Gee to be selected as an OUA Defensive Player of the Year: Maxime Boursiquot was selected as the OUA East Award winner in 2021-22 and Dax Dessureault was the OUA East recipient in 2007-08. Caleb Agada was a two-time winner of the overall OUA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2015-16 and 2016-17.