Leedham Sisters Earn
NE-10 Honors
Jo. Leedham also voted NE-10 Player of the Year, earns first team All-Conference honors for second-straight season; Je. Leedham selected to All-NE-10 third team 

RINDGE, N.H. (March 9, 2008) – The Franklin Pierce University women’s basketball team’s sister combination of junior co-captain Jennifer and sophomore All-American Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy (Conn.)) have earned postseason awards from the Northeast-10 Conference, as voted on by its 15 head coaches. The All-Conference awards were announced this afternoon following the NE-10 women’s championship in Easton, Mass.

           Johannah Leedham was voted the Northeast-10 Player of the Year and also collected first team All-Conference honors for the second-straight year, while Jennifer earned All-NE-10 honors for the first time with her selection to the third team. Johannah becomes just the fourth sophomore in NE-10 history to earn Player of the Year honors in women’s basketball, joining Bentley’s Lauren Fuller (1999-2000) and Alison Fay (1981-82) and Assumption’s Joy Barry (1990-91).          

Johannah Leedham is just the second Franklin Pierce women’s basketball player in program history to earn Conference Player of the Year accolades (first since joining the NE-10), joining Kelly Jewett who collected the award in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) in 1993-94. Leedham is also the first two-time first team All-Conference selection for the Ravens since Kari Hunt was a first team All-NECC pick three-straight years (1996-99). Franklin Pierce’s two All-Conference selections is the most since 1998-99 when Hunt earned first team honors and Juanita Brown was a second team All-NECC pick.

           The Leedham sisters are a large part of Franklin Pierce’s success, which has the Ravens knocking on the door of the program’s sixth NCAA Division II Tournament bid. They are accounting for 46.2-percent of the Ravens offense this season, averaging a combined 33.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 5.3 steals per game. One or the other sister has led Franklin Pierce in scoring in all but one game so far this season and in all but two contests over the last two seasons.          

Johannah Leedham, who has also earned ESPN The Magazine District I Academic All-America and NE-10 All-Academic first team honors so far this season, leads the NE-10 with 22.2 points (5^th nationally) and 3.4 steals (13^th) per game this season, to go with 6.6 rebounds (12^th NE-10) and 4.0 assists per game (5^th). She is shooting 47.9-percent (226-for-472) from the field (9^th), including 37.1% (49-132) from three-point range (7^th), and converting 82.3% (144-175) of her free-throw attempts (6^th). She has led the Ravens in scoring in 27 of their 29 games so far this season and also collected a team-best six double-doubles.

           Leedham, who has reached double-figures in scoring in all 54 games of her collegiate career, has scored 20-plus points in 36 of those games (20 of 29 this season) and netted 30-plus points 12 times (four this winter). She is just the second player in program history to score 600 points is a season, joining former Raven Shelia Lindsay who did so three times, and her 645 points so far are the fourth-best total in program history. She earned NE-10 Player of the Week honors four times, running her program-record career total to ten.

           Leedham holds no less than 21 program records, including two set this season, at Franklin Pierce. She became the fastest player in program history to reach 1,000-career points, doing so in her 44^th career game at Saint Rose on January 26. She poured in a program-record eight three-point field goals in a win over Southern New Hampshire on January 12. She currently ranks third all-time at Franklin Pierce with 197 career steals and is 11^th in program history with 1,223 career points.

           The honors are the latest in a long list of accolades for Leedham, who became the first All-American in program history when she was named to the Daktronics third team as a freshman. Also the first Kodak/WBCA Division II honorable mention All-America in program history, Leedham was named the NE-10 Freshman of the Year and earned All-Rookie team status in 2006-07.          

Jennifer Leedham earns All-NE-10 honors for the first time with her third team selection. She is averaging 11.0 points (17^th NE-10), 4.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists (4^th) and 2.0 steals (8^th) per game for Franklin Pierce this winter. The Ravens co-captain is shooting 45.1-percent (116-for-257) from the field, including 38.2% (42-110) from three-point range (5^th), and converting 70.8% (34-48) of her free-throw attempts. She has led the Ravens in scoring twice this season, including her season-best 24 point outing in a win at Post University on December 14.

           Leedham ranks fifth in program history with 321 career assists, while her 165 career steals are good for 9^th all-time. She has also scored 916 points and grabbed 285 rebounds in her career. Jennifer netted a career-best 34 points at Merrimack on February 17, 2007 and grabbed a career-high ten rebounds against Bentley on January 8.

           Franklin Pierce (24-5, 18-4 NE-10), ranked 17^th in this week’s USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division II poll and third in the final regular season NCAA Division II Northeast Regional rankings, awaits official word on a certain NCAA Tournament bid when they are announced tonight at 10:30 p.m. The selection show can be viewed online via the NCAA website (www.ncaa.com) or www.cstv.com/ncaa/divii. Fans can also view the 64-team bracket in its entirety online at www.ncaa.com immediately following the selection show.

            The Ravens have matched the program record for wins in a season and finished second in the NE-10 regular season standings for the first time since joining the Conference in 2000.