Witkowski Named 2003 Lacy Linchpin Award Recipient

by Sports Information
4/30/03

LANCASTER, PA -- Franklin & Marshall College seniors Asaf Ganot (Sr., Tenafly, NJ/Tenafly) and Kelly Witkowski (Sr., Colts Neck, NJ/Marlboro) have been named the winners of the 2003 basketball "Lacy Linchpin" Award.

Winners of the Lacy Linchpin Award, presented on behalf of Dr. and Mrs. O.W. Lacy in memory of their daughter Lucinda Puryear Lacy '76, are selected by a committee chaired by Dr. Lacy.

The award is presented to "a member of the women’s and men’s basketball teams who have been a linchpin or cornerstone of the team – someone who is quietly modest, scrupulously fair, uprightly honorable and steadfastly diligent in practice, in the game, in the classroom and on- and off-campus."

The recipients of the award will receive a framed certificate in recognition of the award and have their names engraved on a plaque on display in the lobby of F&M's Mayser Center.

The Diplomats defensive "stopper" and a member of the All-Centennial First Team, Ganot was a force on both ends of the court leading F&M in assists (121), steals (53), rebounds (231) and offensive boards (71) while averaging 8.8 points per game.

He led the Diplomats in rebounding 14 times this season, including a season high 14 boards in a 82-78 double-overtime victory at 2002 National Championship game runner-up Elizabethtown College on November 26.

A member of the January 20 Centennial Conference Honor Roll and the 2003 ECAC Tournament MVP, Ganot concluded his career with 519 points, 461 rebounds, 153 steals and 223 assists, while ranking second all-time at the College with 123 blocked shots in 96 career games. As a freshman, he helped lead the team to the 2000 Centennial Conference Championship and the NCAA Final Four.

In the Centennial Conference, he ranked the leaders in rebounding (8.4, sixth), field goal percentage (.520, 11th), assists (3.92, fourth), steals (1.76, fifth), blocked shots (1.48, fourth), assist/turnover ratio (2.80, first), offensive rebounds (2.60, sixth) and defensive rebounds (5.44, fifth) per game during the 2002-03 season.

A member of back-to-back Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Region Championship teams, he becomes only the second player in the award's history to win the honor twice, joining former teammate Dave Manzo '00 who garnered the award in 1999 and 2000.

Witkowski is a four-year letterwinner for the women’s basketball team, which compiled a 13-10 overall record in 2003. A 5-7 guard, she started 22 of 23 games this season, contributing 88 points, 31 assists, 39 steals and 76 rebounds.

For her career, Witkowski started 45 of 94 games with 302 points, 99 assists, 97 steals, five blocked shots and 194 rebounds.