Women's Basketball | 3/24/2026 12:00:00 PM

Bati Assefa, Cassandra Hawthorne, and Aleah James, members of the Saint Francis women's basketball team, have been named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team, announced on Tuesday.
Assefa appeared in 28 games with 21 starts and averaged 5.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in her first season in Loretto. She scored double figures four times this season, including a career-high 15 points against Lafayette on November 16, and posted 14 points against CCSU in her final game at DeGol Arena on February 28. The senior also grabbed 10+ rebounds twice, with a career-high 12 boards at Xavier on December 14. Assefa has a 3.50 grade-point average and is majoring in Psychological Science.

Hawthorne appeared in 29 games with 12 starts, averaging 5.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. The graduate student registered double figures in points six times, including a career-high 24 points at Fordham on December 21. She posted five of her six 10+ performances on the road, and had three games with exactly 12 points and two contests with exactly 10 points to go with her first career 20-point game. Hawthorne registered a career-high nine rebounds in her Red Flash debut at Duquesne on November 3. Hawthorne had a 4.0 grade-point average as an undergraduate and currently maintains a 3.66 grade-point average in graduate school while pursuing her Master of Business Administration.

James played in 28 games with 15 starts and paced the team in assists (77), while ranking second in scoring (10.8 ppg) and third in steals (25). She posted double figures 14 times with three 20-point games. James pulled off the rare feat of scoring 20+ points in her first game (20, vs Robert Morris, November 13) and final game (21 points, vs CCSU, February 28) at DeGol Arena. The graduate student notched a career-high 22 points at Xavier. She also grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Lafayette on November 16 and dished out a career-best eight assists against La Salle on November 8. James had a 3.71 grade-point average in undergraduate studies and a 3.83 grade-point average in graduate school, while working toward her Master of Business Administration. 

In 2022-23, CSC changed the criteria to require that a student-athlete boast at least a 3.5 grade-point average (in both undergraduate and graduate if in graduate school), compete in 90 percent of the competition, or register 66 percent of starts in a given season. 

Saint Francis women's basketball has had a CSC All-District player 20 times since 2001. The Red Flash has had 22 selections in 2025-26 and has had 274 student-athletes honored since 2001-02.