April 9, 2009

Complete AAA Scholar-Athlete Release in PDF Format

PHILADELPHIA, PA - La Salle University men's basketball junior Yves Mekongo Mbala (Elizabeth, NJ/St. Patrick's) has been named to the AAA National Academic All-America Team by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). 

He is joined in recognition by Morgan Robertson (Amarillo, TX/Amarillo) from the women's team who earned Honorable Mention, which marks La Salle as just one of four schools in the nation to have a male and a female honored.

The NCADA AAA teams consist of 10 men and 10 women who have achieved a grade point average of at least 3.20 and are either a starter or important reserve on their teams.

Mekongo Mbala started 21 games and had a team-high streak of 60 consecutive starts going back to his freshman season before breaking a bone in his shooting hand and missing eight games.

At the time of his injury he was the team's third leading scorer and top rebounder with 11.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

The honor is just the latest in a long list for the native of Cameroon who, most-recently became La Salle's fourth ESPN the Magazine/Co-SIDA Academic All-American in men's basketball and was named to his second Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference team.  In 2008 he was named to the Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly-SIDA Academic All-Area team and is likely to repeat that honor this season. 

Mekongo Mbala, who was also named to the 2008 NACDA team, has a GPA of 3.83 as an Integrated Science, Business & Technology major.

This is Robertson's third academic honor since the 2008-09 season ended, which includes regional All-American and Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference. The Political Science and Psychology major currently holds a 3.87 GPA.

Among the numbers put up by the junior this past season, she was one of just two players to start all 29 games for the Explorers - and has a streak of 44 straight. She led the team in scoring (12.3 ppg), rebounding (8.1 pg), field goal percentage (43.3%), and free throw shooting (80.2%).

She notched 11 double-doubles this season, tied with Jenny McGowan (1992-93) for the most at the school in a single-season in 27 years. Robertson scored in double figures 20 times, including a career-high 26 points versus Charlotte (Feb. 14). She grabbed at least 10 rebounds 12 times, including a career-high 19 versus Radford (Nov. 29).

To view the entire release, click on the pdf document at the top of this release.