Carpenter Earns ESPN THE Magazine Academic All-District Honors

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana State Billings junior Alira Carpenter was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII women’s basketball third team, as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday.

A native of Lewistown, Mont., Carpenter has played and started in all 18 games this season for the Yellowjackets. She leads the team in a number of areas, including scoring at 19.4 points per game. In addition, she leads the team from the field, shooting 42 percent (123 of 292) and she also leads the team from beyond the arc at 42 percent of 53 of 126. At the line, she is a team-best 50 of 60 for 83 percent.

Carpenter leads the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in scoring (19.4), as well as averaging a league-best 2.94 three -pointers per game. She is fifth in the league in three-point field goal shooting at .421and fifth in free throw percentage at .833.
Not only does Carpenter excel on the court, she does so in the classroom, too. She carries a 3.56 grade-point average in chemistry and biology.

To be eligible for nominations to the CoSIDA Academic All-America team, nominees must own a cumulative GPA of 3.20 based on a 4.0 scale.

Carpenter, Libby Magnuson of Seattle Pacific and Sade Smith of Saint Martin's were the three student-athletes from the GNAC to earn this prestigious award.

The Yellowjackets travel to Western Washington and Central Washington this week, before returning to home to play host to Seattle University Feb. 16 at 5 p.m.