Moon Township, Pa. – Nneka Ezeigbo, a senior center on the Robert Morris University women's basketball team, was recognized as the Northeast Conference (NEC) Winter Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced by the league in a press release Monday afternoon. Ezeigbo's honor is for women's basketball as the NEC handed out scholar-athlete awards to its 2019-20 winter sports, which included honoring a total of seven student-athletes across six sports.
Ezeigbo, who shares this year's accolade with Karson Swogger of Saint Francis U, is the second different Colonial to be bestowed with NEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year plaudits. Anna Niki Stamolamprou '17 captured the honor twice in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The senior center is one of 35 Robert Morris student-athletes that were named to the 2019-20 NEC Winter Academic Honor Roll, including 18 that were selected to the 2019-20 NEC Winter Commissioner's Honor Roll.
LINK: Robert Morris' 2019-20 NEC Winter Academic & Commissioner's Honor Roll
A psychology major with a 3.57 grade point average, Ezeigbo adds her Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor to an already crowded trophy case. Closing her career last month, the senior is a four-time All-NEC selection – including back-to-back First Team nods in 2019 and 2020 – and the 2019 NEC Defensive Player of the Year. She won NEC Tournament MVP as a junior after leading the Colonials to their sixth NCAA Tournament, and captured six NEC Player of the Week awards over her career – a number that includes four this season.
One of the best players to put on a RMU uniform, Ezeigbo closed her career ranked fourth all-time in rebounds (870) and field goals made (557), fifth in blocks (109), sixth in points (1,358) and games played (125), eighth in steals (167), and 12th in field goal percentage (.484). She is one of four players to accumulate 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 blocks, and 100 steals in a career, alongside RMU Athletic Hall of Fame inductees Elise James '00, Maebeth Schalles '93, and Artemis Spanou '14. The Ewing, N.J. native is the only player in program history to be a part of four NEC regular-season championship teams.
Ezeigbo's contributions in the classroom have helped RMU rank inside the top four of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25 Division I Team Honor Roll – the only program to do so – and capture three consecutive NEC Team GPA Awards.
To make the NEC Academic Honor Roll, student-athletes must post a GPA of 3.20 or better, while Commissioner's Honor Roll designation requires a 3.75 or better GPA. All scholar-athlete award winners must have earned a minimum of 60 semester hours at their institution, maintained a cumulative GPA of 3.20, and participated with distinction as a member of a varsity team.
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