Date Posted: 2/28/2006

Macon, Ga. - The Atlantic Sun Conference today announced the men's basketball all-academic honorees and once again Belmont University topped the list with 12 student-athletes receiving honors. Belmont has been at the top of the list since joining the Atlantic Sun in 2001. In total, 57 A-Sun men's basketball student-athletes received recognition for their work in the classroom.

The 2004-05 A-Sun Student-Athlete of the Year, senior Will Emerson, led Mercer with a 4.0 and has also led the team on the court this season. Four other student-athletes also earned a 4.0 during the fall, including: Mike Modlin (Belmont); Matthew Johnson (Campbell); Brian Hipsher (Jacksonville); and Zach Berry (Kennesaw State).

Kennesaw State had eight student-athletes earn all-academic honors, while Mercer and Jacksonville each had a total of seven. Gardner-Webb and UNF had five, Campbell and Stetson each had four. ETSU, who is serving as host to the 2006 General Shale Atlantic Sun Tournament this week, had three student-athetes earn all-academic. Rounding out the the list is Lipscomb, which had two.

To be named A-Sun All-Academic, a student-athlete must achieve a 3.0 or higher GPA in the classroom. Belmont is the two-time defending champion of the all-academic trophy, which is given to the institution with the greatest percentage of student-athletes receiving honors. A complete list of all-academic performers is included.

Belmont (12)
Brian Collins
Shane Dansby
Matthew Dotson
Justin Hare
Andrew House
Adrian Jones
Mike Modlin
Dan Oliver
Will Peeples
Andrew Preston
Cole Rose
Andy Wicke

Campbell (4)
Benjamin Coleman
Russ Gibson
Matthew Johnson
Reggie Bishop

ETSU (3)
Shaun L. Keaton
Ben C. Rhoda
Dante N. Williams

Gardner-Webb (5)
Brian Bender
Simon Conn
Sean Helms
T.J. McCullough
Ricky McPhee

Jacksonville (7)
Aubrey Conerly
David Fine
Bryan Hipsher
Matt Kampfe
Phillip Okonma
Ljubisa Vrcelj
Andrew Zimbro

Kennesaw State (8)
Cesar Cruz
Steve Heramb
Golden Ingle
Kenan Knight
Marvin Listenbee
Ryan Nelson
Brandon Peterson
Zach Berry

Lipscomb (2)
Kristopher Alpers
James Poindexter

Mercer (7)
Ross Alacqua
Andrew Brown
Will Emerson
Micalvin Hammonds
Hrjove Pervan
Brian Pfohl
Jacob Skogen

UNF (5)
David Ashwell
Erik Atkinson
Riley Didion
Carl McNally
Jonson Yousefzadeh

Stetson (4)
Gabriel McMillen
Collins Okafor
Anthony Register
Jason Ryczek