EWU women check in at No. 4 in Academic Top 25

The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced its Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll Aug. 4, and once again the Eastern Washington University women’s basketball team was featured on the list, as they posted the fourth-highest grade point average in all of NCAA Division I.

Eastern, which has become a fixture on the prestigious WBCA Academic Top 25 list, posted a team GPA of 3.637 during this past season.

This year marks the 15th WBCA Academic Top 25 selection for the program, while 14 have come under head coach Wendy Schuller. Eastern was the only school represented from the Big Sky Conference on this year’s list, and they were the only team west of the Rocky Mountains to place inside to Top 10.

“Academics is a top priority in our program,” Schuller said. “We want to prepare our players for life after basketball.”

The WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll selection is just the latest in a long list of accolades for the 2015-16 Eastern Washington women’s team. The Eagles earned their second-straight 20-win campaign and finished 13-5 in league play to end the regular season in second place in the Big Sky standings.

“This academic accomplishment surely culminates in what has been one of the best seasons in women’s basketball history here at Eastern Washington,” Schuller added. “The 2015-16 edition of the Eagles was outstanding in the community, finished second in the Big Sky and won 20 games. But, to succeed in the classroom at such a high level is pretty special. I guess, in a way, we made a Final Four of our own.”

This year’s No. 4-ranking marked a move up four places on the list from last season’s No. 8 spot. The Eagles have been featured in the top three of the WBCA Academic Top 25 four times in program history, and accumulated the top GPA in all of NCAA Division I women’s basketball back during the 2003-04 season.

St. Francis College (N.Y.) took this year’s top spot with a GPA of 3.712. South Dakota followed with a 3.691 GPA, while Eastern Washington was sandwiched in between Youngstown State (3.639) and Houston Baptist (3.612), who was third and fifth respectively.