ATLANTA, Ga. (July 20, 2010) – The Centenary women’s basketball team finished the season with the second-best team GPA in Division III, earning Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll accolades, the organization announced Tuesday.
The Cyclones posted a 3.613 team GPA, .03 shy of the first-place team, Carnegie Mellon. In 2008-09, theteam finished with the 11th-best GPA in the nation to earn the Top 25 Team Honor Roll award.
“To move up to the second-place spot from being ranked 11th last year is an incredible accomplishment and a true testament of how hard the players work off the court,” said co-head coach Lorie Khalil. “It takes time management, focus and a team effort to juggle the demands of college athletics and academics and my players do an outstanding job of that. We pride ourselves on our academic excellence but we could not do it without the support of our faculty. I know the players will aim higher next season to be No. 1 and keep striving to be the best student-athletes that they can be.”
Centenary finished the 2009-10 campaign 15-11, including 10-5 in Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) action. CC, the fifth-seed, upset three-time defending conference champion Cabrini with a thrilling 67-66 win on a last-second basket by rising senior Marissa DiStasio (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) to advance to its first conference semifinals since 2000-01, when it was part of the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAC).
Academically, 16 Lady Cyclones were named to the CSAC All-Academic Team and rising junior Jen Vasta (Boonton, N.J./Boonton) received ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America District 2 Third Team honors.
Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit www.wbca.org.