WBSK: ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT - Gardner Named First Team Academic All-District VIII

NEWBERG, Ore. - A leader both on and off the court, George Fox University point guard B.B. Gardner has been named to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine / CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII Women's Basketball College Division First Team as voted on by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Gardner, a senior from Zigzag, Ore., and Sandy High School, has been a three-year starter for a Bruins' program that has won three straight Northwest Conference titles, made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and won the 2008-09 NCAA Division III national championship with a perfect 32-0 record.  In 106 games played to date in her four-year career, she has scored 364 points (3.43 ppg), collected 220 rebounds (2.08 rpg), made 95 steals (0.90 spg), and handed out 241 assists (2.27 apg), ranking 8th all-time in career assists at George Fox.

This season, Gardner is averaging 5.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.63 steals and 2.84 assists per game for the Bruins, who are 17-2 overall, 10-0 in the conference, ranked 5th in both the WBCA and D3hoops national polls, and No. 1 in the West Region.  She is 6th in the NWC in assists and 12th in steals.  As the starting point guard on last year's national title team, she averaged 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 3.0 assists per game, and was 47th nationally with a 1.64 assist/turnover ratio.

In the classroom, Gardner has compiled a grade point average of 3.84 while majoring in psychology.  She is the women's basketball representative on the George Fox Student Athletic Advisory Committee, co-chairs that group, and represents the athletes from all schools on the Northwest Conference Championships Committee.

Joining Gardner on the District VIII First Team are Courtney Carroll and Meghan Yetman of the University of Redlands, Reyana Colson of California Polytechnic Institute-Pomona, Claire Ely and Jocelyn Riordan of the University of Puget Sound, and Daesha Henderson of Seattle Pacific University.  All are automatically nominated for Academic All-America honors, which are voted on by the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee and will be announced in a few weeks.

District VIII of CoSIDA consists of all sports information directors and college sports media relations personnel from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawai'i, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.  This is the sixth year for the CoSIDA Academic All-America teams to be sponsored by ESPN The Magazine.   The complete lists of 2009-10 Academic All-District Basketball Teams are available on line at http://cosida.com/news/2010/2/4/0204102244_1759.aspx.