Lakers Place Five On Basketball Academic All-District Teams
CHICAGO – Roosevelt had five student-athletes named to the men's and women's basketball Academic All-District teams sponsored by College Sports Communicators, the organization announced Tuesday.
Julio Montes II is the sole representative for the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship men's basketball squad. The women's basketball team had the maximum four honorees in Grace Beyer, Jalyssa Carrasco, Kristen Keys and Malou Savanna. It is the first all-district honors for all five Lakers players.
Montes was a second-team all-CCAC honoree this season after he led Roosevelt in scoring at 15.2 points per game and shot 43 percent from the field, including 42 percent from 3-point range. He also added a team-best 3.7 assists per game while leading the Lakers to their first CCAC championship this season as a captain. The Lakers reached their highest program ranking at No. 11 overall and were a No. 4 seed in their second-ever appearance in the NAIA Tournament.
Keys was also a second-team all-conference pick this season for the women, finishing second on the team in scoring at 11.3 points per game. She shot 43 percent from the field and nearly 40 percent from behind the arc while playing in 23 games this season and averaging slightly more than 26 minutes per contest. She bounced back from an early-season injury to drop 21 points at then-No. 22 Grand View then topped that with 26 points at St. Francis on Feb. 10.
Carrasco was the general on the court for Roosevelt, setting a program record with 5.5 assists per game this year. The junior finished with the third-most assists in a single-season with 142, and was on pace to potentially break the school record had she not missed the last three games due to injury.
Beyer and Savanna were two of the three players to appear in all 29 games this season for the Lakers. Beyer was a 3-point weapon and went off in big moments from behind the arc while reaching double figures six times. Savanna averaged just over nine points per game and reached a historic milestone of 1,000 career collegiate points during her graduate year with Roosevelt.
The Academic All-America program is the longest running and premier award for athletic and academic success across championship college sports in all three NCAA divisions, the NAIA, two-year colleges and Canadian institutions. It was established in 1952 and the honorees are nominated by CSC members then All-American honors are voted on by the membership as well.
In order to be named to the Academic All-District teams, a student-athlete must not only hold at least a 3.5 grade point average, but also must have either appeared in 90 percent of a team's games or started 2/3 of a team's contests. The list of all-district honorees is then vetted by the CSC committee, who send out a ballot for All-American honors to the membership.