TicketsFeb. 6, 2008
CINCINNATI -- University of Cincinnati women's basketball player Jill Stephens has been selected as a 2007-08 BIG EAST/Aéropostale Institutional Female Scholar-Athlete award winner, providing her $2,000 toward graduate studies. A winner is selected from each of the 16 BIG EAST institutions with an overall winner earning a $4,000 scholarship.
The selections were made by the BIG EAST's Academic Affairs Committee, who named Syracuse track & field All-American Jillian Drouin as the BIG EAST Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Stephens, a junior forward, averages a team-high 9.6 rebounds a game for the Bearcats and is second on the team with a 13.8 scoring average. She has collected eight double-doubles this year, the most a UC player has grabbed in a season since Debbie Merrill tallied 11 double-doubles during the 2002-03 season. She has played nine 40-minute games this season and was the first UC player to be named the BIG EAST Women's Basketball Player of the Week (Dec. 17) since the Bearcats joined the league in 2005-06. Prior to her Player of the Week award, Stephens was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll (Nov. 26). Stephens pulled down 22 rebounds -- 14 of them offensive -- against McNeese State, earning third place in the UC record books for total rebounds in a game and tying a Fifth Third Arena record with 14 offensive boards. A Communication Sciences and Disorders major, Stephens earned a 4.0 GPA last quarter and holds a 3.95 overall GPA.
The BIG EAST/Aéropostale Scholar-Athlete Awards were established to recognize student-athletes who have achieved success in the classroom and on the field. Aéropostale sponsors all of the conference's academic awards for graduate or professional school studies and has provided apparel items to all participants at men's and women's BIG EAST Championship events.