CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Loyola University Maryland junior guard Andre Walker earned a spot on the Preseason All-Patriot League team on Wednesday, garnering a spot on the side after leading the Greyhounds in scoring a year ago.
Walker averaged 14.2 points, 3.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore in 2015-2016, finishing the season as one of the hottest players in the League. Over the last three games of the regular-season, Walker went 13-of-15 (86.7 percent) from 3-point range. He was joined on the preseason team by Lehigh University's Tim Kempton, the Preseason Player of the Year, Boston University's Eric Fanning, Bucknell University's Nana Foulland, Lehigh's Kahron Ross and American University's Delante Jones.
Walker was dialed-in as a distance shooter late in the season, hitting 43.8 percent of his 3-point attempts during Patriot League games. He finished the year leading Loyola in points, assists, steals, free-throw percentage and 3-point field goal percentage.
In earning All-Patriot League Second Team laurels as a sophomore, Walker had four games with 20 or more points, capped by a career-high 31 points -- 29 that came after halftime -- in a double-overtime victory on Feb. 6 at the U.S. Military Academy. He also scored 22 on Feb. 21 at Colgate University and finished with 25 on Feb. 27 at American University.
Despite taking over the full-time point guard duties for the Greyhounds last year, the native of Westbury, New York, did not see his scoring role diminish. He tallied 10 or more points in 26 of 30 games while scoring 15 or more on 13 occasions.
A graduate of New York City's Christ the King High School, Walker raised his game during Patriot League play, averaging 15.6 points against conference opponents, the No. 5 mark in the League. That scoring output boosted his season-long average by nearly three points from non-conference action, and he finished the regular-season seventh in the conference in scoring.
Walker was dialed-in as a distance shooter late in the season, hitting 43.8 percent of his 3-point attempts during Patriot League games. He went 6-of-6 from behind he arc on Saturday against the Eagles, tying Marquis Sullivan's 2007 school record for most threes made in a game without a miss.
As a full-time point guard, he raised his assist total from 68 as a freshman in 2014-2015 to 108 (3.9 per game) last season. He also continued to be one of the top defenders in the conference, averaging 1.5 steals per game.
The Greyhounds, who open the regular-season with a Nov. 11 game at Duquesne University, were picked seventh in the Patriot League. Loyola opens the doors to Reitz Arena on Thursday, Nov. 3 when they host Johns Hopkins University in a free exhibition game.
