Leedham Leads Great Britain to FIBA U20 European Championship Semifinals
Franklin Pierce All-American totals 27 points and 11 rebounds in win over Poland
RINDGE, N.H. (July 20, 2007) - Franklin Pierce University All-American Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy) led Great Britain to a 76-66 victory over Poland in the quarterfinal round of the FIBA U-20 Women's European Championships in Druskininkai, Lithuania this morning.
Leedham posted her second double-double of the tournament, netting a team-high 27 points, on 9-of-15 shooting from the field (3-5 from three-point range) while converting all six free-throw attempts, to go with a game-high 11 rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots in 36 minutes of action.
Great Britain, the second seed in the knock-out stage from Group A, trailed Poland, third seed from Group B, 43-39 at halftime, but posted a 20-7 advantage in the third quarter to take control of the contest. Leedham and Great Britain will face Montenegro, a 70-52 winner over The Netherlands today, in a semifinal contest tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. (EDT).
Great Britain is 4-1 overall at the tournament after finishing tied with host country Lithuania atop Group A in pool play, but lost the head-to-head tiebreaker. Leedham leads GBR in most statistical categories through five games, averaging 22.8 points (2nd overall among Championship leaders), 9.0 rebounds (5th), 3.2 assists (5th) and 3.8 steals (2nd) per contest. She is shooting 50.6-percent (41-of-81) from the field (5th), including 7-for-20 (35%) from three-point range. Leedham has scored 20-plus points in all but one contest, including her tournament best total today.
Leedham, a Daktronics third team All-American and also the first Kodak/WBCA All-District selection in program history, also collected Daktronics All-Northeast Region first team, Northeast-10 Conference Freshman of the Year, first team All-Conference and NE-10 All-Rookie team honors this past winter at Franklin Pierce. She took the Northeast-10 by storm in her first collegiate season, earning NE-10 Freshman of the Week honors 11 times and Player of the Week honors on six occasions, including a string of three-straight weeks leading into the holiday break. Leedham appeared in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of the January 15 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Leedham led the Northeast-10 in scoring, averaging 23.1 points (3rd in Division II), to go with a Conference-best 4.0 steals (3rd nationally), 7.9 rebounds (5th NE-10), 3.3 assists (13th) and 1.0 blocks (6th) per game. She ranks sixth in the NE-10 in three-point field goal percentage (.390) and free-throw percentage (.813) and eighth in field goal percentage (.490). In 20 NE-10 games played, Leedham averaged 23.6 points (1st), 7.9 rebounds (5th), 3.5 assists (12th), 3.9 steals (1st) and 1.1 blocks (5th).
Leedham scored 20-plus points in all but nine games played last winter, reaching 30 points seven times, and recording ten double-doubles. She led the Ravens in scoring in 19 of their 28 games and rebounding 18 times. Leedham has already made an impact on Franklin Pierce's record book, setting no fewer than 19 records (including freshman marks) in her first collegiate season.
Franklin Pierce (17-10, 13-9 NE-10), ranked tenth in the final NCAA Division II Tournament Northeast Regional rankings, earned its fourth-straight postseason berth and hosted an NE-10 Tournament first round contest for the second-straight year.