Washington, D.C.  – Freshman Deuce Jones of the La Salle University men's basketball team has earned Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year, as announced by the league on Tuesday. Jones is the first La Salle player to win the award since 2004. It is the third time since La Salle joined the Atlantic-10 in 1995 that an Explorer has earned the honor.

Jones has earned seven A-10 Player of the Week awards, the most in program history. The guard led the Atlantic 10 in both points and assists per game by a freshman, with 12.5 and 2.7, respectively. Among all freshmen, he ranks in the top 40 nationally in both categories. The Trenton, N.J. native also checked in at second in steals (1.6) and third in rebounds (4.1) per game amongst freshmen in the league.

The guard had several outstanding performances, owning nine of the top 15 scoring games by Atlantic 10 freshmen this season, including the top two and six of the top ten. He reached double figures in 15 of La Salle's 18 conference games and scored at least 20 in five of them. His masterpiece came in the final game of the regular season, an 81-74 win over Big 5 rival Saint Joseph's. The rookie scored 27 points, the most by any Explorer freshman since at least 2000.

La Salle will begin Atlantic 10 Tournament play on Wednesday, as the Explorers face the #11 seed the Massachusetts Minutemen at 4:30 on USA Network. Tickets are available at GoExplorers.com/tickets.