Alex Ordu certainly has made an impact in his first year of college basketball, earning top honors in his region.

The former Newton County Ram was selected as Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year for his performance on the Oxford College basketball team. In 29 games Ordu averaged 14.4 points, making 138 field goals, including 11 3-pointers and 110 free throws.

"He's really been our on-the-floor leader," said Roderick Stubbs, Oxford basketball coach and assistant athletic director. "He's had a tremendous season as a team leader and stat-wise. He's really the engine that makes us go. If he's not having a productive game we're not successful."

Ordu was selected as the GCAA Player of the Week twice, receiving the honor first on Jan. 30. During the fourth week of the season, Ordu averaged 17.5 points, seven rebounds, 4.5 assists and three steals in two games.

In week seven, Ordu helped the Eagles to two wins in the Dennis Spruell Basketball Classic. In three games he averaged 16.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. His breakout game of that week was a 27-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist effort against Pasco-Hernando Community College.

That type of performance is what Stubbs had in mind when he recruited Ordu a year ago.

"He came and visited the campus a number of times, and we went to see him play at Newton at least three or four times," Stubbs said. "Looking at his skill set he was already a floor general and we thought that he would do very well here."

Samuel Kim, of Oxford, was also named to the GCAA All-region first team. Teammate Stephen Simmons was named to the second team.