Bio

A key component to Shawnee State's impressive shooting totals throughout the 2023-24 season, ace assistant Chandler Fointno returns for his second season on staff alongside Shawnee State head coach Michael Hunter at SSU. Between his time at SSU and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Fointno has served with Hunter for three seasons overall.

During the 2023-24 season, the work of Fointno and 2023-24 SSU assistant Brent Gaither, who worked with Shawnee State's backcourt players (guards and wings), were huge in Shawnee State enjoying one of the best seasons, from a shooting standpoint, in program history.

From a statistical production standpoint, Shawnee State finished first in the River States Conference in three-point field goal percentage (39.8) and second in the RSC in field goal percentage (50.1). Those marks were good for fifth in the NAIA in the former category and 15th overall in the latter category, a key component to SSU going 21-10 and winning its first NAIA National Tournament contest since winning the 2020-21 NAIA National Championship. Shawnee State was also the last time left standing amongst all River States Conference units.

In all, a total of 12 out of the 13 players on Shawnee State's roster shot above 40 percent for the season from the field, with four out of those 13 players shooting at least 37.8 percent or better from three-point range. Of those four players, three of them -- John Dawson, Elkin Ramirez, and Tre Beard -- each shot better than 39.5 percent from long distance. SSU guard/wing Chaze Harris earned First-Team All-RSC honors while Tre Beard nabbed Third-Team All-RSC billing under Fointno's direction as an assistant.

Beard, who earned Third-Team All-RSC honors, shot the basketball at a truly elite level inside, from mid-range and from well beyond the three-point arc.

Clearly establishing himself as one of the greatest shooters in school history, the Chillicothe native put together a terrific year by finishing fourth nationally in three-point field goal percentage (50.3) and sixth nationally in free throw percentage (90.3), tying a program record for single-season free throw percentage in the process. Beard made all of his free throw attempts in 15 out of Shawnee State's 31 contests.

In accomplishing the above feats, Beard finished the 2023-24 season as the only player in the NAIA to shoot above 48 percent from the field, 50 percent from three-point range and 90 percent from the free throw line for the 2023-24 season.

Academically, of the four players who were honored, three -- Beard, Tyreke Johnson and Elkin Ramirez -- were guards/wings. Beard, Johnson and Ramirez were named as RSC Scholar-Athletes and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honorees, while Beard was named as an NAIA Scholar-Athlete.

Prior to his time at Shawnee State, Fointno helped Hunter improve Saint Mary-of-the-Woods from a 3-26 overall record in 2021-22 to a 10-17 overall mark in their first season at SMWC during the 2022-23 campaign.

A regular varsity contributor for high school powerhouse Huber Heights Wayne, Fointno was part of a 25-1 unit as a junior that advanced to the OHSAA Division I Regional Tournament and was ranked among the top 125 units nationally. His teammates that year included a future NCAA Division I player in Trey Landers (Dayton), and Fointno also was in the same program as Xeyrius Williams (Dayton and Akron) and D'Mitrik Trice (Wisconsin).

Fointno ultimately received an opportunity to play at NJCAA Division II Lakeland Community College, where Fointno averaged 9.3 points per game in two seasons at Lakeland, including 9.8 points per contest on 41.8 percent shooting and a 34.1 percent clip from three-point range, before finishing out his collegiate playing career at Edward Waters (Fla.) over his final two seasons of competition.