BALTIMORE, MD (February 20, 2023) -The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) announces the 2022-23 Women's and Men's Basketball All-CIAA Team, All-Rookie team, and superlatives as selected by the Basketball Coaches Association and Sports Information Directors Association.

These standout individuals are being formally recognized today during the annual CIAA Tip-Off Awards banquet. The Tip-Off Awards banquet also serves as the opener to the 2023 CIAA Basketball Tournament, which takes place February 21-25 in Baltimore, MD at CFG Bank Arena.

The top rookies in the CIAA were India Howard on the women's side and Ezekiel Cannedy on the men's. Both freshmen play for Johnson C. Smith.

Howard was named the CIAA Women's Rookie of the Year after leading the conference with 10.6 rebounds per game. Her five offensive boards per game place her second in Division II. The freshman from Coppell, TX also averaged 9.1 points while shooting 45 percent from the field. The six-foot-one forward is the only player in the CIAA averaging 1.5 steals per game and at least a block a game this season. Howard has two of the top three rebounding performances in the conference this year, including grabbing a conference-high for the season, 22 rebounds in a game against Elizabeth City State. In addition to being named rookie of the year, Howard was a 2022-23 All-CIAA selection.

Cannedy finished the regular season as a top-five scorer in the conference as a freshman, averaging 15.4 points per game to earn CIAA Men's Rookie of the Year honors. The Kings Mountain, NC native shot 43.5 percent from the field, 38 percent from deep, and 79 percent from the charity stripe-- all top-five shooting splits in the CIAA. The six-foot-two guard led the conference with 2.6 made threes a game and he also averaged 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

The Men's Basketball All-CIAA Team features two student-athletes from each of Fayetteville State (Cress Worthy & Tyler Foster), Virginia Union (Raemaad Wright & Osborne), and Virginia State (Terrence Hunter-Whitfield & Francis Fitzgerald). The rest of the list includes Cannedy, Faye, Lincoln (PA)'s Korey Williams, Bowie State's Quinton Drayton, Jaylon Gibson from Winston-Salem State, and Livingstone's Khyree Temple. Worthy, Osborne, Hunter-Whitfield, and Fitzgerald were all-conference selections last season and Temple was on the All-Rookie team in 2021-22. Joining Cannedy on the 2022-23 CIAA All-Rookie team is Nehemiah Johnson (St. Augustine's), Pharoah Lassiter (Livingstone), Jaquantae Harris (Elizabeth City State), and Freddie Young, Jr. from Lincoln (PA).

The Women's Basketball All-CIAA Team has three players from Johnson C. Smith (Howard, Shaniya Jones, and Le'Zarea Bowens), the most in 2022-23. Shaw (Tanayja London & Brittiney Seymour) and Lincoln (PA) (Kania Pollock & Fields) each placed two players on the listing. Tucker, Aniylah Bryant from Fayetteville State, Virginia State's Sommer Blakemore, Virginia Union's Ny Langley, and Lauren Banks from St. Augustine's make up the rest of the all-conference team. Bryant, Jones, and Tucker were all-conference selections in 2021-22 while Bowens was an all-conference performer in 2018-19. Banks and London were on the CIAA All-Rookie team last season. This year, the all-rookie team features Winston-Salem State's Jakaiya Mack, Virginia Union's Zoila Martinez, Shaw's Tanashia Hairston, and Lincoln (PA)'s D'Ayzha Atkinson joining Howard on the list.