Six Gators Chosen for the CSC Academic All-District® Men's and Women's Basketball Teams
ALBANY, N.Y. – Six Russell Sage College student-athletes were named to the 2025-2026 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Men's and Women's Basketball Teams.
Junior guard Pape Tunkara (Mount Vernon, NY/Iona Prep/Genesee CC), senior forward Ben Aprilante (Fort Montgomery, NY/James I. O'Neil/SUNY Adirondack), and forward Sidney Lebonzo (Montgomery Village, MD/Watkins Mill/Salisbury), a graduate student, represented the men's basketball program, while junior forward Kallie Hopkins (Millsboro, DE/Poly Tech), senior forward Emily Zeh (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) and senior guard Madison Huneau (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes) were selected from the women's basketball team.
Zeh and Huneau also received the honor last season.
The 2025-2026 Academic All-District® Men's and Women's Basketball Teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
Academic All-District® honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot. First, second and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced April 14 and April 15.
Gator Bites with Papa John's: The 2025-2026 season marked the second with Michael Branche at the helm of Russell Sage College Women's Basketball…The Gators have now qualified for the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament in both of his seasons at the helm…RSC, which reached the Quarterfinals in both appearances, combined eight returners with four newcomers on this year's roster…Hopkins and senior guard Layla Acosta (Haines City, FL/Haines City) highlighted the returnees…Acosta was voted first-team All-Empire 8 Conference...The guard, a three-time All-Conference pick, became just the tenth RSC player to surpass 1,000 career points in the home win vs. SUNY Cobleskill on December 1…She ranks fourth in program records with 1,276 career points...Emily Parslow '19 is third with 1,370 career points… Acosta was tabbed the E8 Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, November 9…She topped all players with 24 points on 47.3 percent shooting in the season-opening home victory vs. Bard on November 8…Freshman guard Miranda Price (Stillwater, NY/Stillwater) was chosen the E8 Rookie of the Week for the period ending Sunday, November 16…She tallied a game-high 19 points in the home win vs. SUNY Morrisville on November 15…Price went 7-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, in her collegiate debut…Acosta was tabbed an E8 Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, December 7…The guard tallied 26 points on 43.5 percent shooting in the home win vs. SUNY Cobleskill on December 1…Forward Isabella Clute (Schenectady, NY/Mohonasen) was selected the Conference Rookie of the Week for the period ending Sunday, January 18…The freshman averaged 8.0 points on 6-of-6 shooting and 4.0 rebounds to help the Gators have an undefeated week…Acosta took home E8 Player of the Week honors for the period ending Sunday, February 1…The guard, who averaged 22.3 points on 39.3 percent shooting across three games, scored 35 points at SUNY Brockport (1/30)...She passed Mary Leary '83 for fourth place on the program's career scoring list with the output, tied for the third-most in a game by an RSC player...On January 12, 2019, Emily Parslow '19, who is third on the program career scoring list, scored 35 points vs. Nazareth…Acosta went into the postseason ranked fourth in the E8 with a 16.1 points per-game scoring average…Going into the E8 Tournament, Hopkins ranked fifth in the Conference in rebounding at 8.7.
