CHICAGO (February 28, 2018) – Clayton Custer (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest/Iowa State) was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Most Improved Team, while Lucas Williamson (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) was selected to the MVC All-Bench Team it was announced today. The teams were selected by the league's newspaper beat writers and are comprised of a minimum of five student-athletes on each squad.
 
Custer, who yesterday collected MVC Player of the Year and First Team All-MVC accolades, improved his scoring average from last season by nearly three points, from 11.6 to 14.2 points per game this season. The 6-foot-1 redshirt junior guard improved most in shooting the basketball, bumping his field goal percentage from 46.4 percent last season to 54.4 percent this year, while raising his accuracy from three-point territory from 41.2 percent to 46.2 percent.
 
Williamson had a solid rookie campaign, coming off the bench in 25 of Loyola's 30 contests, averaging 4.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, while connecting on 47.3 percent of his field goal attempts and 45.8 percent of his three-point tries. He has scored in double figures four times this season, pouring in a season-best 14 points against UIC on December 2.
 
Loyola finished a historic regular season with a 25-5 overall record and a 15-3 mark in Valley play en route to its first outright conference championship since 1984-85. The 15 conference wins established a new school record and the Ramblers also ranked among the national leaders in field goal percentage (2^nd - .514), and three-point field goal percentage (12^th - .407), while ranking seventh in the nation in scoring defense (63.4 ppg).
 
The top-seeded Ramblers open play at the 2018 MVC Championship on Friday, March 2, at noon, when they face the winner of the No. 8 Evansville versus No. 9 UNI game.
 
The complete list of MVC specialty team honorees follows.
 
MVC All-Bench Team
Markus Golder, Valparaiso
Wyatt Lohaus, UNI
Reggie Scurry, Missouri State
Tyler Smithpeters, Southern Illinois
Lucas Williamson, Loyola
Graham Woodward, Drake
 
MVC Most-Improved Team
Jordan Barnes, Indiana State
Aaron Cook, Southern Illinois
Clayton Custer, Loyola
Sean Lloyd, Southern Illinois
Nick McGlynn, Drake
Dru Smith, Evansville