Dec. 4, 2013
ST. LOUIS -
Sophomore guards Alexis Foley and Nick Zeisloft were named the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Week for the first time in both of their careers, as announced by the league office Wednesday. It is the first scholar-athlete for a Redbird men's student-athlete and the fifth for the Redbird women.
Now in its 15th year of existence, The Valley's Scholar-Athlete program honors its student-athletes for their athletic performance for a one-week period and academic success in the classroom.
Foley led the Illinois State women's basketball team to a second-place finish in the Freeport Division of the Junkanoo Jam over the weekend, as she collected back-to-back career-high performances against Florida and Penn State. For her performances over the weekend, Foley was named to the all-tournament team and the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week. Against Florida, the Redbirds tallied their first win of the season with a 68-64 victory over the Gators. Foley netted 21 points, thanks to a 4-of-5 shooting effort from three-point territory. She also sank three jumpers and three free throws in a career-high 39 minutes.
In the championship game against then-No. 14/13 Penn State, Foley recorded her second-straight career-high performance of the weekend. Despite netting 24 points with six three pointers, which also set a career-high, Foley and ISU fell to PSU, 72-60. The White Bear Lake, Minn., native averaged 22.5 points over the two games. She also brought down eight rebounds over the weekend, with an assist and a steal. The math education major holds a cumulative grade-point average of 3.88.
As a redshirt sophomore on the court this season, Zeisloft has already surpassed his single-game scoring and rebounding career-highs with a 14-point effort at San Francisco (Nov. 30) and two seven-rebound performances at San Francisco (Nov. 30) and at VCU (Nov. 8). Zeisloft averaged 7.3 points and 4.0 rebounds throughout last week's three games to help Illinois State to a 2-1 finish, which tied for first place, at the round-robin University of San Francisco Golden Gate Challenge (Nov. 27-30). The LaGrange, Ill., native, is averaging 4.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game so far this season.
Throughout his entire academic career at Illinois State, Zeisloft has excelled in the classroom, earning a 3.74 cumulative grade-point average (GPA) in finance. He is a three-time AFNI Honor Roll member, while amassing a perfect 4.0 GPA during two out of his first four semesters.
Redbird soccer players Kyla Cross and Aryn Newsome, who won the honor twice, and volleyball's Kaitlyn Early were the other Redbirds to earn the academic weekly honor.
Both the men's and women's basketball teams have two home games this week, as the men's first appearance back on Doug Collins Court is tonight against Chicago State at 7:05 p.m., while the women will take on Northern Illinois Thursday at 7:05 p.m.
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