By: Story Courtesy of Stevens Athletics

NEW YORK, N.Y. (April 10, 2024) – Graduate student Stephen Braunstein and junior Jack Spellman of the Stevens Institute of Technology men's basketball team was each named First Team All-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), the organization announced Wednesday. 

The recognition is the second for Spellman, while Braunstein earned the accolade for the first time. Spellman landed on the organization's Second Team as a sophomore. 

In his first season on Castle Point, Braunstein led the Ducks by averaging 16.8 points per game (470 total points) across 28 games. The Colts Neck, New Jersey native shot 46% from the floor and 42.2% from behind the arc, ranking 16th in Division III in 3-point shooting. Arriving as a graduate transfer from the University of Scranton, Braunstein was an impact player during his lone season on Castle Point, reaching double figures 24 times, including an 18-point performance in his Stevens debut. He finished with seven games with 20 or more points and netted a career-high 29 on 9 for 12 shooting from behind the arc in a non-conference win over St. Jospeh's (L.I.) on Nov. 29. Braunstein ranked third in the MAC Freedom in scoring and finished tops in the conference with 84 3-pointers, which also ranked 12th in the country. 

Spellman, the MAC Freedom's Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, finished the 2023-24 campaign averaging 12.6 points and 10.9 rebounds across 28 games for his second straight season with at least 10 points in each statistical category. He totaled 352 points and a career-high 305 rebounds on the year and poured in a season-high 26 points in a road conference win at Arcadia and snagged a career-high 19 rebounds in the Ducks' NCAA matchup with Farmingdale State. The program leader in single-game, single-season, and career blocks, the Westfield, New Jersey native led Division III in both total blocks (114) and blocks per game (4.07). He recorded 11 double-doubles and had a triple-double in the non-conference win over St. Joseph's (L.I.). Spellman has the fourth-best blocks per game average (3.43) of any active player across all three NCAA divisions (and second in DIII) and his 264 career blocks are the sixth-most of any active player (an interesting nugget: Spellman needed just 77 games to reach his current career total, which is at least 18 less than any player ahead of him on the list).

Farmingdale State's Nick Hurowitz was named MET Division III Men's Player of the Year, while Farmingdale's Brendan Twomey was tabbed Coach of the Year. Braunstein and Spellman were joined on the First Team by Hurowitz, NYU's Spencer Freedman, Ramapo's Peter Gorman, Baruch's Devin Nicholson and Yeshiva's Zevi Samet. A total of 18 student-athletes were recognized by the MBWA Wednesday across three teams. Stevens was the lone school in the MET umbrella to land multiple players on the first team.

The 2023-24 All-Met teams will be honored at the 91st MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner on Thursday, April 18, at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, New York. The Haggerty dinner is the longest running, media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States. The All-Met Awards represent 36 colleges and universities and more than 500 student-athletes.

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