Soles and Rackauskas Earn Men’s Hoop All-AAC Acclaim

February 22, 2007

Wise, VA – The top two University of Virginia’s College at Wise men’s basketball players all season, Jarred Soles and Zydrunas Rackauskas, earned All-Appalachian Conference acclaim announced on Wednesday by the league.

The duo lead the Highland Cavaliers (7-24) in nine total categories and combined to average 33.6 points and 13.5 rebounds.

Soles, a junior from Yorktown, VA, was selected for his first All-AAC awards to the second team. He paced the Cavs and was seventh in the conference with a 17.3 points per game average. Soles earned AAC Player of the Week honors one time late in the season. The York High product became the 28 th player in the UVA-Wise men’s hoops history to reach the 1,000-point plateau and finished the season in 14 th place on the career point list with 1,196 points. He set a career mark for points in a game with 31 tallies against King College after tying his previous high of 30 points three weeks earlier against Bluefield College.

Soles was tops on the squad with points scored (536), average (17.3 ppg), field goals made (183), three-pointers made (74), three-point percentage (.351) and steals (29). The guard was second on the team with 66 assists while third in three-point field goal made (2.39/gm) and fourth in free throw percentage with an 80.7% (96 of 119) free throw percentage in the AAC. He had 11 games with 20-plus points while dropping in four or more triples 10 times.

Rackauskas returned to the AAC awards for the second year in a row with selection on the third team. The sophomore was the AAC Freshman of the Year last season. He was named the AAC Player of the Week two times in the 2006-07 season. The forward from Kaunas, Lithuania was the top rebounder in the league and lone double figurer boardman at 10.8 rpg. He was also second on the Cavs and eighth in the AAC with a 16.3 point average. Zydrunas, who played at Jeffersontown (KY) High, improved his scoring by 2.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game from his first season.

The second-year player posted 15 double-doubles with his best effort of 24 points and 18 rebounds against Bluefield. Zydrunas had season-highs of 24 points five times and 21 rebounds against Covenant College. He had eight 20-plus point outings and 16 contests with double digits rebounds. In 60 games, Rackauskas has 904 points (15.1 ppg) and 613 caroms (10.2 rpg).

Guard Joey Blackwell joined both Soles and Rackauskas on the Academic All-AAC list. The junior guard paced the Cavs with 85 assists while averaging 5.2 points per contest.