OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Georgia Southern senior guard Anna Claire Knight has been named a candidate for the collegiate women's basketball 2014-15 Senior CLASS Award®.

Thirty NCAA women's basketball student-athletes who excel both on and off the court were selected today as candidates. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition.

Knight was an All-Southern Conference selection a season ago, a preseason All-Sun Belt selection prior to the 2014-15 campaign and currently ranks 16th in the Sun Belt in scoring (11.6 ppg) and 13th in rebounding (5.6 rpg). She collected her 500th career rebound at Texas State last night. 

Knight owns a 3.82 grade point average in sports management and was a three-time member of the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and two-time selection to the SoCon All-Academic Team. She is the only candidate for the women's basketball award from the Sun Belt Conference.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Among the 60 candidates (30 for men's basketball and 30 for women's basketball), 27 have grade-point averages of 3.5 or higher. Three of this year's candidates were 2013-14 CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-Americans® and four are returning All-Americans. More than 20 of the 32 NCAA Division I basketball-playing conferences are represented as well.

The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2015 NCAA Men's Final Four® and NCAA Women's Final Four®. Each of the 30 candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.

The Eagles cap a three-game road swing at UL Monroe Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. Eastern.

All-session ticket books for this year's Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championships March 11-15, in New Orleans are available at the Georgia Southern ticket office. Call 1-800-GSU-WINS!

Women's Basketball Candidates
Sunejiro Agbuke, Baylor
Sharane Campbell-Olds, Oklahoma    
Audrey Dotson, Bucknell    
Ariana Elegado, Cal Poly    
Nicole Elmblad, Michigan    
Nneka Enemkpali, Texas    
Alexis Govan, Western Kentucky    
Ashlee Guay, CSUN    
Isabelle Harrison, Tennessee    
Alexa Hayward, St. Francis    
Emiliy Homan, Lafayette    
Andrea Hoover, Dayton    
Jamie Kaplan, Tulane    
Sina King, Akron    
Anna Claire Knight, Georgia Southern
Samantha Logic, Iowa
Ally Malott, Dayton
Chakecia Miller, George Washington
Lexie Nelson, Eastern Washington
Sabina Oroszova, Eastern Illinois
Amber Orrange, Stanford
Megan Rogowski, DePaul
Heidi Schlegel, Youngstown State
Haley Seibert, IPFW
Jama Sharp, Stetson
Kiah Stokes, Connecticut
Shawnee Sweeney, Maryland–Eastern Shore
Elizabeth Williams, Duke
Michelle Young, Bradley
Inma Zanoguera, Toledo

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. For tickets to Georgia Southern athletics events, call 1-800-GSU-WINS or visit GSEagles.com.