June 5, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle University Women's Basketball team has announced its newest crop of players who will be joining the squad this upcoming season, which features a pair of New York stars and the Explorers first recruit from North of the Border.

The only guard brought in is Nadia Duncan, a 5-8 guard out of Mount Vernon High School in New York. In her four-year career, she scored 1,192 points and added 162 assists, 169 steals, 539 rebounds and 62 blocks.

As a senior, Duncan was named MVP of the Slam Dunk Tournament and earned Third Team All-State honors after scoring 401 points with 168 boards, 52 assists, 67 steals, and 37 blocks. Other highlights for Duncan in her high school career include All-Section honors as both a junior and senior, Eighth Team All-State as a junior, Sectional Finals All-Tournament team both junior and senior and graduating 21st out of a class of more than 500.

La Salle's first player recruited from Canada - Jenna Gilbert - will bring with her 20 points and 10 rebounds per game average with her to 20th and Olney. The 6-0 forward from Nepean, Ontario, played for Merivale High School and was a First Team All-Star at Nationals.

Career accolades for Gilbert include being named Merivale's MVP as a sophomore and junior, being selected to Team Ontario three times and helping her team to the AAAA OFSAA's in two seasons as she was a top five scoring in the tournament both years. She was also a member of the Centre for Performance - Canada's national development program since 2003. 

The third player the Explorers will welcome this season is Jessica Walton, a 6-2 forward from Holy Names Academy in Albany, NY. She averaged 16 points, 8.5 rebounds, four blocks, and three steals per game as a senior, which led to her Second Team All-State selection in 2008, which followed her Fifth Team honor as a junior.

Walton was Holy Name's MVP both as a junior and senior as she led the team in points and rebounds both seasons, while also adding selections to the News Channel 13 All-Star team, the Section 2 Class A All-Star team, the Colonial Council All-Star team and Times Union All-Star team both years.

La Salle will also welcome back three other Explorers who saw limited to no action last year due to injury - Tara Lapetina (four games), Chelsea Conner (three), and Antonia Gale (none) - to a squad that lost four seniors to graduation.

The Explorers are scheduled to open up the 2008-09 slate on Friday, November 14 with a game at Villanova.