NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State basketball standout Sabri Thompson has graduated, gotten a job and is still reaping recognition for his outstanding achievements in his senior season.
 
Tuesday, Thompson was named to the 2016-17 National Association of Basketball Coaches' Honors Court spotlighting junior and senior competitors who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or better on a 4.0 scale. Thompson graduated magna cum laude (3.7) with a double major in business administration and accounting.
 
Thompson was one of seven Southland Conference student-athletes from four teams selected for the NABC Honors Court, along with four Houston Baptist players and one each from Stephen. F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
It's the latest in a continuing series of NABC academic honors reaped by the NSU program and its top scholar-athletes in Mike McConathy's 18 seasons as head coach.
 
A Newark, Del., native, Thompson was a repeat choice this spring on the 2017 Academic All-Southland Team in voting by league coaches, academic advisors and sports information directors. He was the second-leading vote-getter on this season's squad.
 
He was one of five seniors from major college basketball chosen for the Allstate National Association of Basketball Coaches Good Works Team recognizing remarkable community service efforts. He and the other Good Works Team members, who played at Iowa State, DePaul, Princeton and Georgia Tech, were recognized on the court at this year's NCAA Final Four during the second national semifinal game between North Carolina and Oregon.

Thompson, a 6-3 product of The Sanford School, was an honorable mention All-Southland Conference selection for his on-court performance in voting by the 13 league head coaches and their sports information directors. Fifteen players were voted to the first, second and third teams, with an additional five earning enough votes to make honorable mention.

The eighth-best 3-point shooter (42.9 percent) among seniors from the nation's 347 NCAA Division I basketball programs, Thompson ranked seventh among all Southland players in scoring in conference games (15.8 average) and was second in 3-pointers made per game (3.2) in 18 league contests.

Overall, he led the Demons with an average of 30 minutes played and was the second-leading scorer over 29 games with a career-best 13.3 average in 2016-17, adding a career-high 4.3 rebounds per game.

In Southland play, Thompson sparkled. Thompson hit 45 percent of his 3-pointers and 74 percent on the free throw line in the 18 conference outings, averaging 34 minutes per game.

He had five games scoring at least 20 points, including the sixth-best single-game total in school history, a 38-point outburst at home Jan. 12 to key the Demons' first league win, 86-81 over Nicholls. Thompson scored in double figures in 14 of 18 Southland contests, and posted eight or nine points in each of the other four. He twice snagged eight rebounds.

Thompson finished his career third all-time at NSU with 193 3-point baskets, and stands tied for 26th all-time in scoring with 1,086 career points.

The Demons (13-16 overall, 7-11 in the Southland) won three straight and four of their last five to end the season tied for eighth in the conference. In its last three games, NSU beat Southland champion New Orleans, runner-up Stephen F. Austin and scored 57 first-half points in a season-ending 97-83 victory over Central Arkansas as Zeek Woodley became the Demons' all-time scoring leader.