WALESKA, Ga. – On the eve of the 2024 conference basketball tournament, the Appalachian Athletics Conference has announced its men's basketball all-conference selections. Included on the first-team are three University of Pikeville Bears.
 
In addition, one Bear was named to the all-defensive team, one was selected to the Champions of Character team and 10 were named academic all-conference.
 
Selected to the first team, which is released alphabetically, were Bradley Bunch, Issac Stanback and Kyonte Thomas. Thomas was named to the defensive team as well. Graduate student Korbin Spencer was the school's representative on the Champions of Character club.
 
Bunch is a 6-6 sophomore from Big Stone Gap, Va. His average of 14.9 points per game was second on the team this season, as was his 7.0 rebounds per game. He shot 50.3 percent from the field, including 36.5 percent on three-point tries. He also led the team with 24 blocked shots and recorded 23 steals.
 
Stanback averaged 17.1 points and a league-leading 9.3 rebounds per game for the Bears. The 6-5 senior from Chicago also led the conference by shooting 66.1 percent from the field this season, an average that is 15^th in the nation.
 
For good measure, he posted double digit points in 26 of his 28 games and had 15 double-doubles. His 34 steals tied for second on the club as well.
 
Thomas averaged 14.8 points per game. A 6-0 junior from Bolingbrook, Ill., he was solid in every facet of the game, averaging 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 37 percent from the arc.
 
He made the all-defensive team by being a lock-down defender and a thief, as his 34 steals will show. Despite being a guard, he also had three blocked shots.
 
Spencer was the team's representative on the Champions of Character team. A 6-2 guard from Sandy Hook, he was averaging 13.4 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 42.1 percent from outside and 83.3 percent from the line when his career ended with a knee injury in the seventh game of the season.
 
He finished his career with 1,306 points, which has him tied for 17^th on the school's all-time scoring list.
 
Ten members of the basketball program were named to the academic all-conference list after the team posted a 3.43 GPA for the Fall 2023 semester. To qualify for this, a player must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.25 on a 4.0 scale and be a sophomore or higher academically.
 
The players honored are Bradley Bunch, Ethan Chavez, Ethan Colegrove, Keynan Cutlip, Austin Johnson, Noel Kintz, Eloge Ntumba, Korbin Spencer, Logan Taylor and Keian Worrix.
 
The Bears will begin play in the AAC on Thursday. Seeded second in the 10-team tournament, UPike will play the winner of Wednesday's game between No. 7 Reinhardt and No. 10 Truett-McConnell, which is scheduled to start at 12:45 p.m.
 
UPike's game on Thursday will begin at 3:30 p.m. at the MeadowView Convention Center and Resort in Kingsport, Tenn.