Feb. 5, 2009

LAS VEGAS - UNLV's Brittany Halberg was voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII Women's Basketball First Team, the organization of sports information directors announced on Thursday. Halberg earns academic district honors for the first time in her career, and she is the second Lady Rebel in as many years to earn academic all-district honors, as Sequoia Holmes was a third-team selection last season, but Halberg is the first first-team selection since Linda Frohlich in 2002. By virtue of her spot on the first team, Halberg will now be placed on the ballot for CoSIDA Academic All-American honors.

Halberg, a senior guard and native of Lake Oswego, Ore., currently ranks fourth on the team and 28th in the Mountain West Conference in scoring with 8.2 points per game, and is also tied for 14th in assists with 2.52 per contest. She has greatly improved on her three-point shooting this season, and is in the top 15 in the league in both three-pointers per game (10th with 1.52) and percentage (14th with 36%).

Halberg has scored in double-figures five times this season, including a career-high 22 points against Sacramento State in the season opener. She knocked down six three-pointers in that game, which ranks as the fourth-best performance in school history, and is currently fifth in career free throw percentage list at UNLV, at 80.1%.

A three-time Academic All-MWC honoree and member of the dean's list at UNLV, Halberg is the team's representative on UNLV's Student-Athletic-Advisory-Committee. She carries a cumulative GPA of 3.88 while majoring in journalism and media studies.

Student-athletes must be in at least their second season, hold a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.30 and be a starter or important reserve to be eligible for the CoSIDA Academic All-District teams. District VIII is made up of schools in California, Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.