ST. LOUIS -- Bradley sophomore center Patrick O'Bryant (Blaine, Minn./Blaine H.S.) was voted the 2006 Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year by the league’s 10 head coaches and he is joined on the All-MVC second team by Bradley senior forward Marcellus Sommerville (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.), according to an announcement by the league office this afternoon.

Although neither player received enough points in the all-conference balloting by the 40 voters (head coaches, sports information directors, local beat writers and team play-by-play radio announcers) to land on the five-player All-MVC first team, both O’Bryant and Sommerville received votes for the 2006 MVC Player of the Year award.  O’Bryant was eighth in the Player-of-the-Year vote with one first-place vote and eight total points.  Sommerville was ninth, receiving three second-place votes among his seven total points.

The 7-foot O’Bryant becomes the third Bradley player to win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award since it was introduced in 1989, joining Adebayo Akinkunle in 1998 and Jerome Robinson in 2001.  He currently leads the Valley with 3.1 blocked shots per game, which also is tied for ninth nationally.  After becoming the second freshman (Creighton’s Benoit Benjamin in 1982-83 was the first) to lead the Valley in blocked shots by averaging 2.8 rejections per game last season, O’Bryant has a chance to become the first player to lead the league in blocked shots per game in consecutive seasons since another former Bluejay, Chad Gallager, in 1990 and 1991.  As the league’s 2006 Defensive Player of the Year, O’Bryant also becomes the 10th Bradley player to earn a spot on the league’s five-player All-Defense Team, joining Wichita State sophomore swingman PJ Couisnard, Southern Illinois guards Bryan Mullins and Tony Young and Northern Iowa junior forward Grant Stout.

In addition to his blocked shot numbers, O’Bryant ranks second in the Valley by averaging 8.2 rebounds per game and he is eighth in scoring at 13.3 points per game.  A two-time Valley Player-of-the-Week during the season, O’Bryant nearly recorded the second triple-double in school history when he posted 19 points, 16 rebounds and nine blocked shots Feb. 18 versus Tennessee Tech.  In a head-to-head matchup versus 2006 Valley Player of the Year Paul Miller, O’Bryant also turned in 14 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots Dec. 30 at Wichita State.

Like O’Bryant, Sommerville also won two Valley Player-of-the-Week awards during the 2006 season while spearheading Bradley’s late-season surge.  A first-team All-MVC pick in his first two seasons with the Braves, the 6-foot-7 forward averaged 18.1 points on 51.1 percent shooting from the field in the last 11 games while leading Bradley to a 9-2 finish.  The only player to rank among the Valley’s top three in both scoring and rebounding in either of the previous two seasons, Sommerville enters the MVC Tournament third in scoring at 15.8 points per game and seventh in rebounding at 6.5 boards per contest.

Sommerville is ninth in school history by averaging 16.3 points per game for his career and he enters the MVC Tournament 17th in school history with 1,401 points in his three-year Bradley career.  He also has a chance to become the first player in Valley history to record 600 rebounds (611) and 150 3-pointers (143) during a three-year period.

Sommerville becomes the 11th player in school history to collect three All-MVC first- or second-team awards.  The list includes Gene Melchiorre (1949-50-51), Chet Walker (1960-61-62), Joe Allen (1966-67-68), Mitchell Anderson (1979-80-81-82), Voise Winters (1983-84-85), Hersey Hawkins (1986-87-88), Deon Jackson (1993-94-96), Anthony Parker (1995-96-97), Rob Dye (1998-99-00) and Phillip Gilbert (2002-03-04).

O’Bryant and Sommerville will lead fifth-seeded Bradley (18-9, 11-7) into this weekend’s State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, where they will face No. 4 seed Creighton (19-8, 12-6) in Friday’s second quarterfinal game at 2:30 p.m. at the Savvis Center in St. Louis.  Friday’s Bradley/Creighton winner will advance to Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. semifinal game for a matchup against either regular-season champion Wichita State (23-7, 14-4) or the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between No. 8 seed Drake (12-18, 5-13) and No. 9 seed Indiana State (12-15, 4-14).

The Bradley ticket office no longer has tickets remaining for the MVC Tournament.  Fans who have not yet purchased tickets for “Arch Madness” should contact TicketMaster at 314/241-1888 or visit www.ArchMadness.com.