Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The UMass Lowell men's basketball team just might be facing the best point guard in the nation on Saturday.

Merrimack College's junior point guard Darren Duncan was named one of 16 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award as the nation's top collegiate point guard. He is one of just two Division 2 finalists selected.

Duncan leads the Northeast-10 Conference in scoring (20.1 points per game) and assists (7.3 per game). He reached the 1,000 point milestone on November 24, and he currently ranks third nationally in assists per game and 25th nationally in scoring.

Joining Duncan on the final ballot from Division 2 is Virgil Buensuceso of BYU Hawaii.

Previous winners of the award include D.J. Augustin (2008) of the University of Texas, Acie Law IV (2007) of Texas A&M, Dee Brown of Illinois (2006), Raymond Felton from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2005) and Jameer Nelson from St. Joseph’s University (2004).

The 2009 Bob Cousy Award Finalists are: Sheron Collins, University of Kansas; Darren Collison, UCLA; Stephen Curry, Davidson College; Toney Douglas, Florida State University; Levance Fields, University of Pittsburgh; Jonny Flynn, Syracuse University; Dominic James, Marquette University; Ty Lawson, University of North Carolina; Eric Maynor, Virginia Commonwealth University; Patrick Mills, St. Mary’s College; Jeremy Pargo, Gonzaga University; AJ Price, University of Connecticut; Jeff Teague, Wake Forest University; Virgil Buensuceso, BYU – Hawaii; Darren Duncan, Merrimack College; David Arseneault, Grinnell College; Sean Wallis, Washington University.