Moore, Malone earn NAIA National Coach/Player of the Year
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – An unprecedented season for Grace’s men’s basketball team ended with a pair of crowning awards on Monday.
Scott Moore was named the NABC-NAIA National Coach of the Year, and Elijah Malone was named the NABC-NAIA National Player of the Year.
The duo were also selected as the NCCAA National Coach and National Player of the Year as well.
Malone is the first Lancer to be named the NAIA Player of the Year in school history. The senior center will graduate from Grace with four-year totals of 1,953 career points and 1,017 career rebounds.
Malone posted career-best numbers this year, producing 17.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 1.9 assists per game. He shot 63 percent from the floor, 37 percent on 3-pointers and 81 percent from the free throw line.
The center will finish his career ranked No. 1 in career blocks (308), No. 9 in career rebounds (1,017) and No. 9 in career points (1,953). He also finished with the best field goal percentage in Grace history (65 percent), bettering the longtime mark held by Jim Kessler from 1967-70 (62.6 percent).
Malone was the 2024 Crossroads League Player of the Year and was also named to the 2024 NAIA All-Tournament Team. He is Grace’s first player since 2013 to be named NAIA First Team All-American (Bruce Grimm Jr.).
Malone was a NAIA Second Team All-American in 2023; he is one of six Lancers to repeat as NAIA All-Americans in consecutive seasons and the first since Greg Miller (2013, 2014).
Moore joins Jim Kessler (1992) as the first two coaches to be named NAIA National Coach of the Year. Moore guided the Lancers to a record-breaking season in 2023-24, finishing the year with a 34-2 record and 17-1 in the Crossroads League.
Grace set a program record for best start (24-0) and longest winning streak (24) to begin the campaign. Grace was awarded with the NAIA tournament’s overall No. 1 seed (for the first time) and marched all the way to the NAIA Fab Four.
The Lancers were ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll for most of the season, another first accomplishment in Grace’s NAIA Div. I era.
Grace also received several other national awards. Jakob Gibbs collected an NCCAA Third Team All-American award, the first All-American nod of his career. Gibbs averaged 13.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists; the versatile guard was named the Crossroads League Defensive Player of the Year as well.
Academically, Grace had six players earn Scholar-Athlete status from the NAIA/NCCAA. Alex Darnell, Cade Gibbs, Brycen Graber, Carter Stoltzfus, Jakob Gibbs and Marcus Davidson collected Scholar-Athlete status.
Cade Gibbs, Jakob Gibbs, Graber and Stoltzfus were also named to the Academic All-District Team by the College Sports Communicators.